Et tu, Pokè?
by Librarian00X
Summary: "They put on a front that appears accommodating, loyal, and yes, even sacrificial. Then, without warning, they raise their knife, and by the time you see the glint of the blade, it's almost always too late." -Les Parrot
1. Reunion Tour

_(I own nothing. Take your lawsuit and shove it.)_

_((This is a pearlshipping story, or at least one with such content. I wouldn't go so far as to say that's what the story's about, but it's definitely there.))_

_(((It's called horror for a reason, people. Wait, and you shall receive...in the form of bloody pokepocalypse.)))_

* * *

_**Reunion Tour**_

* * *

I was too busy on our pokemon adventure to realize it then, but the world I lived in was an amazing place. There was beauty and fascination all around me at every turn, and the sights continued to pour on as our trek together continued. Wonderful, amazing things...things I can't hope to replicate in words.

Our world is a beautiful place.

But, with every rose comes its thorns.

Life is great, but life must end. I'd known it for a while; my late father before me was a perfect example of how quickly things could change in a second. That every life is finite and precious, and it should be cherished to the very end. If you don't, and it's suddenly gone, what will be left? Memories are forever. A picture speaks a thousand words. Mementos symbolize the great bonds formed and the pain of saying goodbye, the feeling becoming bittersweet as you can't help but miss them despite the knowledge that they're headed to a better place to be happy...if you haven't experienced it yourself, you'll never know what it's like until it happens. If it doesn't happen all your life, you'll never know what it's like, and you'll never learn to prepare and embrace things as though it would vanish tomorrow. Until you know life is limited, you'll never find a purpose to live your life to the fullest. Sheltered lives free of death are disasters in the making; a ticking time bomb of grief and disillusion with the world you thought you knew. I knew a lot of people like that, several of which were and still are dear to me. I tried the best I could to let them know, and that they should appreciate what they have while they have it, but one can only say so much, and without knowing first-hand, there's no way for the person to know. I tried to warn them.

For Ash, my warnings came too late.

It started when Mimey died. It was a perfectly avoidable thing, if taken into perspective. Mimey - Ash's mother's Mr. Mime - was a hard worker. A workaholic, one would call him; always on the move, sweeping up this, mopping up that, dusting off these and putting away those. He worked diligently and without rest, sometimes going entire days on end without food or water if things needed tending to. He worked and worked his very best, never once receiving a thanks from anyone, but continued on anyway, bound and determined that he would prove himself and impress Ash's mother yet. He quit sleeping at night. He quit eating in the morning. He worked twice as hard and three times as long, cleaning the entire house top to bottom and back again in less than 4 hours, and he'd only continue so long as there were tasks to be handed out. Taking him for granted, Ash's mother did just that: kept him busy. And he _stayed_ busy. He kept on working for as long as there were jobs until, weak and exhausted, Mimey collapsed. He was taken in to the pokemon center and diagnosed with acute exhaustion, malnutrition, and lack of rest. His will to work never ceased, but his body simply couldn't hold out.

Mimey died two days later, a broom in hand. His heart gave out while he was trying to clean up the floor around his own life support.

Ash's mother was beside herself with grief. She knew as well as everyone else did in Pallet town that Mimey wouldn't hesitate to push himself to get things done, and with her constantly handing things out, he wouldn't stop. He wouldn't take care of himself so long as the most tedious of tasks remained unattended, all in the name of earning the praises that he rarely if ever received. And, when the jobs never stopped, his own well-being was never taken into account. Mimey was willing to give up his life to take care of the house he lived in.

Ash's mother Delia called Ash. Far away in another region in the midst of his pokemon journey, Ash's signal couldn't be received, and with him having not visited a pokemon center with wireless communication capabilities-as he was too far east at the time to be in sync with the satellites-he couldn't call his mother to learn what happened. Unable to find comfort and believing herself to be abandoned, Delia sank deep into depression, glued to the phone 24 hours a day; if she wasn't desperately dialing her son's number, she was sitting by praying that he would call. He never did.

By the time Ash learned what was happening, it was too late. Three months after Mimey's passing, Delia Ketchum died from grief. She overdosed on sleeping medication and never woke up.

Ash was in a battle with the second of the Sinnoh Elite Four when he received the call. He forfeited on the spot and left for home that very day.

We came with him, of course - what friends wouldn't, with their friend in such a crisis? - and went with him to Kanto. Her funeral was held two days later. She was buried beside her late husband, as per her will.

Ash was devastated. Having never heard the news of Mimey and not remembering his father's death, the loss of his close pokemon friend and mother hit him all at once and crushed him like nothing else had. It was a splash of cold water to the face for him; he learned that day that life doesn't last forever, and that happiness isn't eternal. All of his friends - me, Brock, Gary, Misty, May, Max, Professor Oak...just about anyone and everyone he'd come close to over the years - came to offer solace, but we were all disappointed to find that there was little we could do. Ash isolated himself from the world; he hung up his trainer's hat for good, somehow deciding that it was to blame for his mother's death - if he had been home or somewhere closer when Mimey died, he could have been there for her, and she wouldn't have killed herself. He openly refused comfort, shrugging off our hands, saying it was something he needed to face alone. Not even his best friend Pikachu could get through to him.

He's never been the same since then.

Life went on. Disheartened to lose such a companion, we eventually disbanded and went home. Brock went back to Pewter city to work at the gym once again, eventually handing off the title of gym leader to another and pursuing his dream as a pokemon breeder. I went home to Sinnoh, trying to pick up the pieces and move on, but there was too much missing in my life. Contests lost their luster; battles suddenly didn't give me that thrill anymore. I became dissatisfied, and my pokemon along with me, growing more and more restless as time went on.

In a period of a mere one year, I had lost my love for contests. I settled back in with my mother and tried to live the normal life of home. I couldn't do it. There was a void in my heart that I couldn't seem to fill, no matter what I did. No amount of running could leave it behind, and no number of pokemon battles could make up for the lost spark. Without my friends there to support me, there was nothing there to keep me going.

I went to high school like a normal teen girl. I learned to drive; I bought a car. I moved out of my mom's to an apartment as I went to college, taking up part-time jobs to pay the bills I realized were part of life. I dropped out of college and tried again to become a trainer, hoping the money from winning battles would be enough to support me. My wishful thinking was in vain; I went under quickly, the credit I earned from all those contests draining away until I had nothing else but a little rainy-day money in the back of my room and my precious pokemon that had accompanied me through it all. I moved back in with my mother, who left the house to me as she went on a trek to Hearthome to take back her contest career by storm - ironically enough, my dropping out of the competition left room for her to enter. For her, life could be good, as she had her dream to pursue.

As for me, I was left with nothing but a sense of longing and a heart I hadn't realized had been empty. With nothing to do and only my thoughts to occupy, I spent most of my time thinking - pondering the meaning of life, questioning the morals of pokemon training and capture, judging petty politics and their mechanics, regretting past mistakes. More and more my thoughts drifted back to those days where I had been happy alongside my best friends, pursuing my dreams I secretly knew I'd never be able to meet but wasn't willing to admit it. Living life to the fullest had lost its significance to me since then. I became depressed, realizing I had nothing to live for and no goal in mind to keep me moving on. Nothing to keep me going forward, or to go to bed excited, eager to know what the next day would bring. I knew exactly what the next day would bring: nothing. My life lost its spark, and with it, my will to keep going. I quit living life to the fullest until I quit living life entirely.

I couldn't stop thinking about Ash.

I found myself more and more drifting into thoughts of our adventures together - the battles we had, the days we spent side by side, the laughs we shared...it all stopped one day, all at once, like a dream. When his mother died, a piece of Ash died along with her. He was never the same again. None of us were.

It took me a while - 9 years, to be exact - to realize how much that boy affected my life. Before he was there, I was nervous and insecure, terrified to take that first step forward into the unknown. It wasn't until he came along that I realized I was even headed forward at all, my fears swept away by the knowledge that he was right there beside me, facing the same challenges I was. While I was with him, I was happier than I remember ever being in my entire life. The adventure was a blast; every day brought about something new and meaningful, and our friendship was something I treasured every day. Together with him, me, Brock, and Pikachu were one big happy family. We could go on in safety knowing that we were all there for each other, and that we'd never let anything befall the ones we cared about. We were all happy together. We were just like a family. Like a family, we shared the good times together. Like a family, we felt every happy moment along with each other to make it worth the very most.

And, like a family, when one of us lost what was dear to us, we all shared the pain.

I don't know why I felt so strongly for Ash. What about Brock? He was important, too. I cared about him. He was there for me just as much as Ash was. He was always there, listening to our problems, helping to solve them, providing a reason to laugh when we had no other...he was a light for me. For all of us. But no, something about Ash was different. Something made his loss hurt the most, and made me think about him more than any other. Something made him more special to me. He had a place in my heart that Brock didn't. Why? Did I sympathize with him over his tragedy? Did I feel like I could relate to him, now that he knew what it was like to wake up and realize things wouldn't be the same as before? Maybe it was his close relationship with his mother - a relationship like I have with mine, where she's the only one we could fall back to as family - and seeing how much it hurt him that made me feel for him so strongly. I could be going through the same thing he was, but I wasn't. He didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve to not be able to relate to his friends over something. Maybe it was remorse. Maybe it was compassion. Maybe it was pity.

Maybe it was love.

I'm not one of those dramatic high school girls anymore. I know what love is - what love feels like. My first boyfriend on my return to normal life was the last one to hear the phrase "I love you" come out my lips, bar my mother. True love is something irreplaceable and unable to be broken. The fact that none of my past boyfriends are with me and that they just as quickly found new "love" goes to prove that it wasn't love at all. Love for the idea of love, perhaps, but not love for one another. I learned that when I lost my first boyfriend and saw how little our "love" meant. Love meant that I wanted to be with them always, and that I would give my life for them, be it to save theirs or to spend the rest of my days by their side. It was like how I felt about my pokemon, or my mother, or the love I thought I found.

Like with Ash.

Maybe I _did_ love him. And maybe I still did, at this point. I realized something that day: Pokemon contests hadn't become not exciting. My life hadn't lost its luster. My life had lost something even more precious and dear to me than any contest in the world: Ash Ketchum. The boy who helped me find my life.

I picked up the phone almost without hesitation or thinking. Piplup had given me a funny look, but didn't say anything when I had gone digging through my room searching for a number long-since filed away in the back of my mind. I found what I was looking for, and dialed Ash's number. The phone rang for what felt like an eternity before he answered. I sat down and my bed, introduced myself again to him, praying he hadn't forgotten. He hadn't.

I never stopped talking with him. He never stopped talking with me. We had so much to catch up on - so many years of solitude and isolation to make up for, so many memories to reflect over and laugh at, so many things we had to say to each other. I found out that Ash's life hadn't gone much better for him since our group broke up. He stayed in Pallet town, never moving from his mother's house - hence why I was able to contact him so quickly - and tried to take up the same kind of normal lifestyle I had. Pokemon battles didn't mean the same to him anymore. High school was a drag; college seemed pointless, and he didn't even try. He jumped between jobs, having 4 going at one point, lucky if he made it home in time to get an hour's nap before he was off again, leaving Pikachu alone in the house for hours at a time. Both he and his yellow friend were feeling run out and restless, like their lives simply didn't have any meaning anymore. I told him I felt the same way.

When we both reluctantly had to hang up, it was dark out. We'd talked on the phone for nearly 6 hours that day.

The next day he had work, and couldn't talk. I told him I would wait, and so I did. I waited all day for him to call, never once leaving my room except to use the bathroom, and even then I carried the phone with me for fear that it might ring while I was gone.

He had some free time at 1 in the morning that night. He called me anyway, and I answered happily. We talked until the sun rose the next morning and he had to go to work yet again, starting the process over.

Arceus only knows how long we'd go about this. He'd wake up and go to work, and I'd sit around all day in the hopes he'd get home early. He'd come home and call late, and I'd answer without hesitation, talking for as long as I could with him before the night was spent and he had to go to work again. The days he was free were wonderful - they were few, but I cherished them nonetheless. We had the whole day to ourselves, and we spent every minute talking, bringing our phones everywhere we could while we talked, never once stopping, only pausing long enough to use the bathroom or switch ears because the other went numb. I don't think either of us had ever seen a phone bill so large in our lives. In a matter of three weeks I spent more time on the phone than I had an entire year before this.

I was so happy during that time. I managed to dig up Brock's number as well, catching up with his life, spending equally meaningful hours on the phone listening to each others' voices flow through the devices all but surgically attached to our ears. We'd often have 3-way conversations going on, though it was usually just me and Ash, talking like there was no tomorrow. We both knew that happiness wasn't eternal and that it could change at any moment.

Things did change, but not between us. Mom had stopped coming home entirely, feeding back a steady stream of money from the contests she was so engaged in. I never realized how much money we had all of a sudden. The only major bills being the phone, we were incredibly well off, and I had never noticed while spending all my time attached to the phone to pay attention to much of anything else. I could afford to do things I'd never been able to do before...but I only continued to do what I always had: talk to Ash. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else meant so much to me. My living conditions were on the rise, and could have continued to rise, if I cared about them. All I could think about was Ash - what he was doing today, what he was planning for tomorrow, what had happened during his day, wondering what prank an ever-impish Pikachu had pulled on him. Even Pikachu was feeling joyful at the relationship we had restarted. I was so pleased with having such a good friend back again, I never considered what was going on in my day or what feelings I was having. It didn't matter; all I could think about was hearing his voice again. And, when I again heard his voice, all I could think about was how good it was to hear him. Nothing else mattered or crossed my mind for the longest time.

For me, things were great. Over on Ash's side, though, things weren't so hot. I didn't noticed at first that he was spending more and more time talking to me and less time at work. I asked one day, and found out that he'd been in some trouble. He'd been going to Celadon city to try his luck at the game corner. He'd either strike it rich, or go under trying. And so he went under. He lost his jobs, quit devoting time to his hobbies, had to sell things to make ends meet, had to call in favors and ask for money he knew he'd never be able to return...things were getting hard. So hard that he began to wonder how long it would be before he had to sell his house and put Pikachu up for adoption.

I would never let that happen. Not Ash. _Never _Ash. I wouldn't let him go down like that.

I called Ash one day wondering if he could talk. He said of course he could, and wondered what was on my mind. I asked him about his economic status; he said he didn't want to talk about it. I pressed in until he admitted that he couldn't keep himself afloat by himself, where he put that horrifying scenario about him being homeless and selling Pikachu into my head to haunt my dreams. I couldn't allow that to happen. Naming the only thing I could think of, I asked if he'd let me send him money to help. He said no, that he could take care of this. I begged; he adamantly refused. I tried coming up with a dozen different solutions; he denied them. Naming the first thing that would come to mind, I asked if I could move in to help him. Surprised, he tried to wave it down, but I wouldn't back off about it. I was going to be a friend, I told him; I was going to help him get through the hard time in his life, like I should have with him before. I was moving in, and that was that. He argued no more.

And so I moved.

I hadn't been to Pallet town in nearly 10 years, but I knew the way by heart. I had memorized the map of Kanto prior, using some of the money I had stored away to buy a flight ticket to Viridian city. Ash agreed to meet me at the airport. The plane arrived, and he hadn't come yet. Trusting he would come as he promised he would, I sat down by the entrance to the Viridian city airport and waited.

I sat there for nearly two hours.

The sun was down. I looked over down the street, looking for a car. There were none. The airport was almost completely empty behind me, only the last of the staff going about cleaning as they awaited the latest-flying planes to come in. I stood, I paced, I got tired and sat, only to get tired of that as well and resume one of the other two. A pair of Pidgey came down at one time, pecking absently at the ground. I released Piplup, who got a conversation between the three started, which I watched as long as I could before they flew off again. I chatted with Piplup a little before I returned him to his pokeball and continued to wait.

I sat now, chin in my hand, elbow resting on my knee. A lot of people say I look a lot like my mother and looked like the spitting image of her, but I don't think so. Lately, when I compared the pictures of me before to the image of me in the mirror, and I saw an almost perfect copy of my younger self. The only differences were the minor features of my face, my change in height, and my figure, which had developed a bit more since I was a kid. I didn't think he'd have any problem recognizing me. I still wore the same scarf I always did, though it was a bit worn in places. I had planned to sew it a bit, but the hobby lost value when I discovered talking to Ash again.

_Speaking of Ash, where is he? _I thought for the umpteenth time, looking down the road and back up it, searching for a sign that he was coming. I went over to the parking lot, trying to find one that might be his. There weren't any, the only cars present being the employees of the airport. I sighed, closing my eyes, beginning to think that maybe he wasn't coming after all. _But why? We're friends, and he said he would...maybe something happened? Or maybe he doesn't want me to move in after all?_ It hurt to think about, but with no sign of him for the last two hours, I couldn't shake the thought. Had Ash forgotten about me?

A battered blue ford came rolling down the road, engine grindy and noisy as it made its way over. I saw a man in the front seat with a pair of pokeballs dangling on the rearview mirror in place of lucky dice, and I saw two pointy things in the passenger seat. It pulled up in front of the airport across the street. I didn't wonder who it was for a moment.

The engine was cut, and the car fell silent and still. There was a pause, which seemed to me like someone taking a deep breath before continuing on. The passenger door opened, and a yellow blur was all I saw before I was tackled by a little yellow rodent, red cheeks dancing with sparks as he rubbed against me and licked my face affectionately, piping "Pika! Pika!" excitedly between licks. I laughed, bringing my arms up to hug the little pokemon. "Hi there, Pikachu!" I said happily, landing a big, wet kiss of my own on his forehead. "Did ya miss me, little guy?"

Pikachu didn't mind the kiss at all, beaming happily, eyes dancing with joy at the sight of his long-time friend as he nodded hard enough to send his ears flopping about.

I giggled, hugging him tightly to my chest. "Aw, I missed you too, little buddy..." Remembering I wasn't the only one who missed him as well, I plucked a quintuplet of pokeballs from my belt and flung them into the air, releasing all of the pokemon within to join in on the reunion. Quilava, Buneary, Pachirisu, Piplup, and Togekiss all formed out of the pink energy, momentarily blinding me until the balls snapped shut and floated back to me. I had Mamoswine as well, but he was pretty big, so I figured I'd wait until we were out somewhere more open before bringing him out. "Hey guys!" I announced, waving them over to get their attention. "Check it out! It's Pikachu!"

All of my team instantly snapped around to look; even Quilava, who had been eying the car across the street suspiciously. Pikachu waved happily, saying something in his tongue that came out as a series of fragments of his name. The pokemon stood there for a moment, eyes widening in surprise...until delight lit up their features, and the group engulfed Pikachu like a tidal wave, showering him with hugs and affectionate gestures of greeting. Piplup tried his best to hug Pikachu with his stubby wings, shoving to get a chance to hug him; Buneary leaped up and threw her arms around him, landing kisses all across his face in joy; Pachirisu jumped onto Pikachu's head before nibbling one of his ears and leaping off to do laps around the group, sparks flying as she burst with energy and excitement; Quilava wrapped herself around Pikachu and licked the side of his head lovingly; Togekiss, seeing the crowd that had grouped around their friend, fluttered her wings and scolded them lightly, urging them to _"give the poor boy some breathing room!"_ before proceeding to land a single, heartfelt kiss on Pikachu's head, who was relieved to be free and blushing slightly, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

I laughed at seeing how happy everyone was to see their friend again, so caught up in the happy moment they were having that I didn't notice Ash hadn't come out of his car yet. Pikachu waved him over, saying _"Pikapi!" _encouragingly as he did so. I'd heard him talk to Ash enough times to know who _"Pikapi"_ was, and guessed by his motions what he was insisting.

A moment of stillness ensured. Slowly but surely, I saw the man in the driver's seat move slightly; he turned his head to look at us. He looked around at the pokemon watching him eagerly, Pikachu waving enthusiastically, and his eyes finally rested on me. Even from where I sat across the street I could tell he was scared. Scared...of what, though? To see me again? Was he ashamed that we lost contact over the years like we did? If so, then I just had to tell him I had nothing to hold against him. He'd had a rough time, and I certainly wasn't going to be mad at him for seeking solitude when he lost his mother. I offered a gentle smile to him, raising a hand to lightly wave him over. I wanted to see him again...and I wanted to see him up-close. In-person. Just the two of us.

After a while, Ash sighed and shook his head. At first I thought it was at me until the door to the truck opened and he stepped out, closing it behind him. He stepped out from around his car, visibly took a breath, and made his way over. It felt like slow motion - every footstep felt like a mile until I realized that he was standing right over me, offering a hand to help me up off the sidewalk. I looked up at him in wonder, and he smiled, betraying the way he shook inside. "Sorry I'm late. Had to get my car back from the repo."

I was feeling a million things all at once, but somehow I managed to stifle a laugh and take his hand, smiling as he pulled me to my feet. I just smiled and stared into his eyes, observing all there was to see about him in those eyes of his. When I was traveling with him, I always thought Ash had black eyes, thinking maybe it was some birth defect or something, but never being sure, as we were always on the move and I never had time to just stand there and gaze at him; now, as I stared into his eyes up close, I could see that his eyes weren't black but an incredible shade of navy blue, clouded with the ever-present haze of fatigue from his tiring lifestyle. Through the sheen of being tired and the lack of sleep I could see a sparkle there, shimmering ever so slightly as his eyes looked me over, eventually meeting mine as well. I swam in those gorgeous oceans a while before thinking how I could have missed such a beautiful set of eyes and snapping back to reality. Remembering I hadn't answered his apology, I shook my head. "It's alright. I didn't mind the wait." A lie, of course, but I didn't want to make him feel bad. Seeing him now was more than enough to make it worthwhile.

We both stood there in a comforting silence, smiling as we stared into each other's eyes a while longer before I began to probe his features, realizing how little he'd changed over the years. His eyes had a hint of bags beneath them, indicating that he hadn't slept well lately; his features were clear and defined, and he wasn't wearing his hat, giving me a chance to see his head of slightly spikey black hair that I had only seen on one or two occasions prior. It made him look...a little strange. He always wore that hat. Oh well; it didn't matter. I was just glad to see him now.

Once again I came back to reality to realize he'd opened his arms, waiting for my response. It took me a moment to figure out he was offering a hug, which I happily provided. I reached up, put my arms around his neck, and hugged him, giving him a good squeeze. "I missed you," I told him wholeheartedly.

Ash didn't hesitate to return the hug, arms wrapping around my shoulders. "I missed you, too," he replied, just as earnest as me. "It's been a while, huh?"

I nodded into his chest. "Oh, nothing big. Just 9 years or so."

"Eh, sounds about right. I dunno; I was never good at telling time."

I chuckled, pulling away out of our embrace to look back into his eyes again. Those beautiful, gorgeous eyes...how I wish I'd taken note of those sooner. I had missed out on so much. "It's good to see you again."

Ash nodded, arms still around me ever so slightly. "So it is."

For the longest time he and I stood there together, arms hanging lightly from one another - not as lovers, but as true friends that hadn't seen each other in years, blissfully jubilant to see each other but willing to hold our excitement back, remaining calm and smiling warmly into each others eyes. It felt like it had been an eternity since I'd heard his voice last, despite the fact that I'd spoken to him the very same day. All the troubles we'd had, all the pain we'd felt in the years of solitude, the loneliness...it all seemed to wash away while we stood there, smiling, just enjoying the fact that we could see each other after so long. He was the best friend I'd ever had, and all the time apart had hurt, my shifting and questionable emotions and feelings aside. It felt nice feeling his touch, being in his presence...we finally were together after all this time. We could be friends again, just like we used to. We could be happy.

And so we were.

* * *

I know moving in with each other is generally something that a boyfriend and a girlfriend would do, but hey-he was in a bit of a yank, and we were friends. Good friends, at that. We could live in the same house together, couldn't we? We could give each other some privacy, and act civilized around one another. We could have a nice understanding like we did. He needed the money, I had the money, and we could both use the company from being alone at my mom's. So, I dragged my suitcases over, unloaded into what had been his mom's room, and promptly made myself at home, which he welcomed. He joked that it had been a while since he'd had a woman in his house.

Turns out, he needed it pretty bad.

If anyone's ever wondered why husband and wife move in together when they get married, it's because of one simple reason: men are slobs. At least, as far as organizing and keeping a house tidy. It was actually pretty pathetic. Spent paper cups and bulk food wrappers were scattered everywhere and tucked in every available place that you wouldn't notice right away in an attempt to feign order. The bookshelves were disheveled; magazines lay sprawled open across every available surface and table top, consuming at least 2/3's of the living room. His room was a disaster area; no _way _I was getting in there for anything, even if I wanted to - which I didn't. The couch was a wrinkled mess, the impression in the seats hinting that someone had fallen asleep there more than once. The kitchen...well, I sure hoped he wasn't eating off of them all stacked up by the sink in a teetering pillar waiting for a good chance to tip over and shatter everywhere…although the amount of instant meal containers and snack wrappers suggested he'd been living off of ramen and mac'n'cheese for the last, like, ever. Basically, his house was a hole.

When I walked in, I stopped, looked around, and gave him a look that suggested I wanted to beat my - or his - head repeatedly against a wall. He offered a sheepish grin, rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, and said nothing, waiting obediently for the orders to start cleaning up I had no doubt planned on giving him. I had a nice list ready, in fact, but not that night. We'd sleep for now.

The next morning, however, we kicked it into overhaul.

That day lasted forever. We worked hours on end, our hands and feet well and truly sore by the time we had made any real progress. After what felt like an eternity, the sun set, and with it the longest state of disrepair the house had ever seen. When we went to sleep that night, the house was positively sparkling.

The day after that was mostly economical. I went about the process of transferring some money over to his account, the amount of which present nearly knocking Ash off his feet from shock. I asked him what he thought, and he just shook his head, though I doubt I could pry that smile off his lips with a crowbar.

After that, he and I went about living a life worth living.

Ash's bills got paid. His car got paid off, and we could even afford to fix it up. That Ford had never seen a better day. We worked around the clock, systematically paying off the bills and doing the math Ash knew how to do but couldn't due to the sheer size of the debt he'd had piled up and how unreliable his income was. He seemed a bit embarrassed by the size of the number when we started out, but I just laughed and said it was nothing. I knew Ash was a bright one; he just didn't always have the resources to work with that intelligence of his. Now, with some money to work with, he got pretty clever. He made a few investments that I knew would pay off very quickly, and the way he paid off the bills as we got to working on what remained went to show just how excited he was to be able to put these methods to good use. Back when we were kids, the prospect of paying bills would have put us both to sleep, but now he couldn't be happier to get those damn numbers written down and scratched off.

I had to make two more meager withdrawals before things were going back into the green, and after a few short weeks, things were looking good. _Really _good. I had begun to really feel comfortable around his house, which I started referring to as _our _house the more comfortable I got. The feelings I had felt a few months ago resurfaced, and more than once I sat down and pondered what I was feeling. Maybe I did love him; maybe we were just friends. Regardless, we became as inseparable as brother and sister, and the people around the neighborhood that saw he and I started to wonder what our connections were. I even heard a few kids riding by on bicycles wave and call "Hi, Mrs. Ketchum!"

_Mrs. Ketchum._ How flattered I was to hear the name...even if I was quite embarrassed, Ash having been in earshot when they said it. Our faces became as red as Pikachu's cheeks and we found it uncomfortable to look into each other's eyes for a little bit afterward.

Overall, though, life living with Ash was as fun as it was enjoyable. I was almost always smiling, him along with me, and it started to feel like maybe we really _were _husband and wife. It was something that I would have blushed profusely at, but now I was starting to like the idea. It had a nice ring to it..._Dawn Ketchum. _I'd say it to myself quietly when he was away, working at his new more reliable job, and I'd just stare into the mirror and smile. It made me feel...special. I'd fantasize about it often, sometimes pretending that Pikachu was our child and that I was the mother of the household, flitting about the room happily while humming a tune to myself, unusually perky. To people in the supermarket in Viridian, I would sometimes even be so bold as to introduce myself as Dawn Ketchum. _Dawn Ketchum...such a nice ring to it. Such a nice sound..._

A mere three months had passed since I first moved in with Ash, and I was happier than I could remember ever being in years.

A phone call in the morning was all it took to throw all that into jeopardy...and signal the start of the most terrifying period of my entire life.

* * *

_**AN**_

Edited and tidied up...not that anyone will read back and check it out. Honestly, who rereads fanfictions? -_-'


	2. Scientific Methods

_**Scientific Methods**_

It started as a day like any other, and it looked like it was going to be a gorgeous one. It was a Saturday, and Ash had the day off; both Ash and I slept in, though I woke up earlier to start some breakfast around 9. On the way to the kitchen, I passed by Pikachu, who was curled up on the couch, sleeping lightly. I could see him turning occasionally as his restlessness showed, even through his sleep. I frowned. Pikachu had been feeling a little under the weather the last few weeks. It started as just an off day, then went to a headache that we got some medicine for. The medicine was useless; the headaches continued, and appeared to be getting worse and worse, appearing in sudden bursts that would leave poor Pikachu clutching his skull in agony, momentarily incapacitating him. Ash talked to the Nurse Joy up in Viridian about it and found out that there was a bug going around lately, and that a lot of pokemon all over were starting to get ill. Not dangerously so, but it was enough to attract a little attention.

"It seems like something that spawned with the changing climate," Nurse Joy told him. "We had a warm winter, and we got some snow, which melted and left things pretty humid and damp. The placid weather around here would make the area a breeding ground for allergies and a utopia for more finicky diseases."

Ash didn't like the sound of that. "Is it dangerous?"

"No, I don't think so. It displays symptoms that cause the pokemon discomfort, but that's all. It goes through most pokemons' systems in a few weeks. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just give it some pain medicine for the headaches and it should run its course soon."

Ash came home and did as instructed. The sickness wasn't getting worse, but it wasn't getting better, either. No concoction or combination of medicine seemed to work, and the only thing that came out of treating Pikachu were the side-effects of the medicines themselves. Eventually, Ash just stopped treating him and hoped he would get better soon.

Pikachu mumbled something in his sleep and turned on his side, facing away from me. I came up and carefully pulled a little blanket up over him, tucking him in slightly. Smiling, I went to the kitchen to mix up some pancakes.

Ash woke up about an hour later, rubbing his eyes. He sniffed the air, licking his lips. "Mm...something smells good."

"Thanks!" I chirped, splashing a little extra syrup onto his stack of hotcakes. He liked it extra-sweet. A little bacon made it to the plate before Ash was on it, practically shoveling food into his mouth. "Easy!" I protested, giggling at his usual vigor. "You eat like a Munchlax in a twinkie factory!"

Ash paused to consider this, stopping long enough to wipe some syrup from his lips before resuming his carnivorous consumption of breakfast. My warning that he was going to choke went unheeded, as usual. Nothing could come between Ash and his breakfast. I swear, if he spent as much time focusing on his manners as he did stuffing himself...

I shook my head in pity and amusement as I went about eating in a much more civilized manner, yellow catching the corner of my eye. "Morning, Pika!" I said happily as he padded groggily into the kitchen. "Did you sleep well?" Silly question; the exhausted look on his face said it all.

Pikachu grumbled something incoherent - despite the fact that we couldn't understand him in the first place - jumping up onto the counter and nearly slipping off, his coordination seeming slurred.

I extended a hand to catch him, lifting him up to where he'd tried to jump. I gave Ash a look, who had stopped eating, his concerned expression matching my own. He didn't seem to be getting any better at all. Hoping to lift the little guy's spirits, I placed an especially plump pecha berry into his paws, smiling blissfully to conceal my worry. "Here you go, little guy! I saved it just for you!"

Pikachu glanced down at the berry for a moment, pausing as though it was taking a moment to register before looking up at me, muttering a "pika" in thanks and nibbling at the edge of the juicy berry. Despite his dainty bites, his lips were stained and colored orange as he continued to eat at the tender fruit. His usual enthusiasm for his favorite food was nonexistent.

I frowned, careful to disguise my concern with the dabbing of a napkin at his lips to clean them off, looking to Ash out of the corner of my eye as if to say, "well? What now?"

Ash looked pensive for a moment before his gaze sank down to his plate again, resuming his meal. He ate at a much slower rate than before, looking slightly distant.

Breakfast passed in relative silence.

Finishing his pecha berry, Pikachu dropped the stem unceremoniously on the counter and went to jump back down, nearly tripping as he did so and landing harshly on his feet. I started to move to see if he was okay, but he ignored me continued on back to the living room, climbing back on the couch to resume sleeping, yanking the blanket I had provided over himself grumpily.

Once again I turned to Ash, our concerned expressions meeting, but again neither of us said anything.

The phone rang and shattered the silence, and I happily answered as Ash continued to eat. "Ketchum residence~!" I chirped happily.

The person on the other end seemed a bit surprised to hear me, because he hesitated. _"...Dawn? Is that you?"_

"Yep!" I replied as chipper as ever, though curiosity took over quickly. "Who's this?"

_"Good to hear from you again, Dawn. This is Professor Oak. Is Ash there?"_

"Hi, Professor! Yes, he's right here. Hold on." I pulled the phone away from my ear and turned to hand it to Ash...frowned, rolling my eyes at his sheepish grin, grabbing a napkin. "Swallow," I ordered in a motherly manner.

Ash did as instructed, his bulging cheeks going back to their normal positions as the contents of his mouth was forced down his throat. He tried to swallow everything at once, I thought he was going to start choking before he returned his attention to me, just in time to get a napkin stuck to his syrupy mouth. He snickered, wiping himself the rest of the way before speaking into the phone. "Hello?"

_"Hello, Ash, it's Professor Oak. Do you have a moment?"_

"Sure thing, Professor," Ash replied, setting the brown-stained napkin down on the counter he leaned over. "What's new?"

_"Oh, nothing much; the same as usual," _Oak replied casually._ "Study here, study there...find time for food and sleep in between. Oh, and dodging Muk - can't forget that."_

Ash chuckled, shaking his head. Some things just didn't change, apparently. He glanced over his shoulder to the living room, where I was sitting next to Pikachu, stroking his ears softly. "...hey, Professor?" he asked, taking my concerned look over his pokemon to heart. "I was wondering about something...you know that bug that's going around? The one getting the pokemon sick?"

_"Yes, I've heard quite a bit about that," _Oak replied solemnly. _"That's what I called to talk about, actually. I need you to help me out with something."_

"Alright, sure." Although Ash was curious to know more about the sickness itself, running an errand for Professor Oak-who would know more about it than anyone Ash could think of, as he was a pokemon professor-could help to achieve that end, if it had to do with the sickness. Doing this might have benefits of its own. "What do you need?"

_"Oh, it's nothing much, really. First, though, I was wondering if any of your pokemon have been developing some of the symptoms of that bug going around."_

"Yes, actually." Ash looked over his shoulder back to Pikachu. "Pikachu's been having some pretty serious headaches lately...I think it might be that bug. Nurse Joy said to give him rest and wait for it to go through his system, but..."

Oak paused just long enough to nod thoughtfully to himself. _"I see...how long has this been going on?"_

Ash shrugged, remembering Oak couldn't see him. "Oh, I don't know...not very long. Last couple weeks? Two; three, maybe?"

_"Have any of your other pokemon been acting up?"_

"No...at least, I don't think so. Pikachu's the only one around the house a lot, so I only really notice it with him."

_"I see. Do you let your pokemon out of their pokeballs regularly?"_

"Yeah, every day. They like the exercise."

_"Hm." _Though faint, Ash could detect a hint of disapproval in Oak's voice. _"Do you have any pokemon that haven't been out recently? Some in the PC system?"_

Ash thought a moment, going back through his mental list of pokemon. He didn't like to keep pokemon pent up in the PC system; all that sitting around in nothingness had to be maddening, after a while. He preferred to keep them out and about, so they could be healthy. His Sinnoh, Kanto, and Johto teams were out, as he had them out and about all the time. The Safari pokemon he'd gathered on his Kanto trek were also gone; they and the herd of Tauros he caught were roaming around in the pasture behind Professor Oak's lab. Muk was up at the lab tormenting Oak, Charizard was off in that mountain range with others of his kind... "Uh, I don't think...wait, there's always Snorlax." One of the laziest pokemon Ash had ever seen; he sat around all day, snoring loudly, waking up only to stuff himself before going back to sleep. Ash kept him up in his pokeball most of the time. Being a Snorlax, he didn't mind the amount of inactivity being in a PC would bring, and since he was in a pokeball, he didn't need to eat. It was a perfect deal; Ash didn't have to find room for him, and Snorlax could sit around and do absolutely nothing to his heart's content. He loved it.

_"How long has it been since you've let Snorlax out?" _Oak pressed.

"I don't know...a while. A few months, I think. He's usually in the PC."

_"Perfect!" _Oak declared, apparently satisfied. _"Okay, I need you to withdraw Snorlax the next chance you get and run him up here for me. Don't let him out of his pokeball; I need to see something. It's part of an experiment I'm working on."_

Ash frowned. An experiment? On Snorlax? "You're not gonna do weird tests on him or anything, are you?"

_"Oh, no, nothing like that!" _Oak assured him, chuckling. _"I just need to have a look at a pokemon that's been in the PC for a while. I'm looking into something with that bug going around, and I need to have a pokemon for reference that hasn't been exposed to it quite yet. All the pokemon I have access to have already been exposed and could contaminate the results. If Snorlax is clean, he could be just what I need."_

"Right..." Ash still wasn't so sure. He didn't like the sound of the word "experiment," but he figured Professor Oak wouldn't do anything that would make Snorlax uncomfortable. The older man loved pokemon as much as he did. "Okay, I can do that. I can bring him up right now, if you want."

_"That would be wonderful. Thank you, Ash, this really helps. Don't forget to keep him in his pokeball until you get him here!"_

"Don't worry, I won't. I'll be there in a jiff." With that Ash hung up, rising up and heading up the stairs to his room.

I was on the couch in the meantime, still massaging little Pikachu's head, his eyes closed in contentment. I looked up at Ash as he went to his room. "You're leaving?" I asked him.

"Yep," Ash called back, throwing together an outfit he could walk around in. Somehow, he suspected being seen strolling through town in his pajamas wouldn't go over well. "I'm gonna be at Professor Oak's for a little."

"Oh, okay," I replied, slightly downtrodden. As he had been chatting away with the professor, I had been sitting there petting Pikachu absently, my mind working away at processing the feelings I'd been having recently. I'd been planning a little something for the two of us, and it was slightly worrisome that he would be gone.

Ash frowned on hearing the disappointment in my voice. He finished getting dressed and came back downstairs. "But I'll be back soon," he assured me, hoping to cheer me up a bit. He knew that I liked to be around him, but the exact nature of why I did eluded him. Most likely, anyway. I do know that he's not the best with girls, so his being clueless isn't anything new. "Then we can hang out all day, okay?"

I smiled at him, looking at those eyes of his...oh, _Arceus, _his eyes are beautiful. Such a deep, pristine blue...I still can't believe I didn't notice those years ago. How had I been around him that much and not see the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen? "Mm...yeah, I guess I can live with that," I quipped, looking down to Pikachu. "I'll take care of little Pika while you're out."

Hearing my pet name for him made Pikachu's ears perk slightly, catching his attention. He raised his head to us groggily, eyes drooping slightly. _"Pikapi..?"_

"Morning, sleepy head," Ash said, reaching down to pat Pikachu's head. "I'm gonna leave for a little while to help Professor Oak with something. Think you can hold down the fort for that long?"

Pikachu nodded with a sleepy _"Chu"_ before laying his head back down on my thigh, eyes closing. He was trying to take a nap.

I stroked his ears affectionately, smiling at how cute he was. _Poor little fella...I hope he gets better soon. This stupid bug's taking a lot out of him._

Ash smiled as well, then rustled my hair a little, as he did whenever I wasn't wearing my hat. "And _you _try not to burn the house down while I'm gone."

I huffed in annoyance, swatting his hand away as he chuckled, trying to fix my hair. "Hey, I'm the lady of the household! This place was a trash heap before _I_ got here!"

"Yeah, well, this is also _you_ we're talking about, so I'm probably going to come back to a pile of rubble after I'm done."

"Sheesh, then you probably shouldn't leave me behind to watch Pikachu, if I'm so dangerous!"

"I'm not. I'm leaving _Pikachu _here to watch _you. _Right, buddy?"

Pikachu flicked an ear and said nothing, not wanting to be dragged into it right now.

I just rolled my eyes at him. "Whatever. Go get mauled by Muk, asshole."

"Love you too, Dawn!" Ash snickered as he headed out the door, a smug smile on his face as he got into his blue truck. He always got a kick out of our antics, and it left him feeling satisfied, like he always was after we "fought."

I, however, was experiencing a flurry of emotion I _wasn't_ accustomed to feeling. Those words..._love you..._they made me feel strange. My chest felt light, like my heart was fluttering and pushing it back a bit. I felt a bit dreamy all of a sudden, a suppressed equivalent of giddiness coming through despite my calm demeanor. I knew he was joking, that it was part of our play-bickering, but it still felt...good. Very good. I'd never felt quite that way, and he'd never said something like that to me before, playing or otherwise. It was new, it caught me off guard...and I liked it. It felt good to hear him say it to me.

Smiling beneath a dreamy sigh, I looked down to Pikachu, who was breathing softly as he slept with his head on my thigh, rubbing the fur along the back of his neck. "...love you, too, Ash."

_Ash's POV_

Pallet Town is one of the smallest towns around, as it only recently got a Pokemon Center and a PokeMart of it's own. I drove up along the street, turning my head left as I crested a hill that overlooked the rest of the town. Before me I could see a horizon of homes, stretching all the way into the bustling downtown area of Pallet. Cars and pedestrians buzzed along the streets as people went about their daily lives, the town still quiet and peaceful, even after it had received its gradual upgrade in urban status. Briefly easing up on the gas to see the sight a bit more, cruising slowly down the road as the hill started downward, I mused at the thought of the sleepy town I had left here when I was younger. Times had changed, but Pallet Town had taken it all in stride. It was still a great place to live. The best, in my opinion.

I pulled up to the parking lot of the Pokemon Center, cutting the engine and stepping out, heading through the sliding blue doors. Immediately I noticed that a rather irritable-looking Mightyena had taken up a defensive position by one of the tables, teeth bared and snarling a deep, throaty growl. It flicked a glance over to me, and I hesitated. Mightyena are known for their ferocity and tendency to kill pokemon and trainers alike for something as simple as wandering into their territory; they don't suffer fools, and they're not particularly patient. Therefore, seeing one of those bruisers in a rather temperamental state made me and everyone else in the facility nervous. What was more dangerous than an already dangerous pokemon that was acting unpredictable?

"Fang!" its trainer scolded, hands on his hips like a parent getting after an errant child. Despite his apparent confidence, he kept the distance between them and didn't show any interest to approach. He stood by the counter, next to a rather pale-faced Nurse Joy. "Get your furry ass over here right now!"

The Mightyena snarled, giving a sharp bark that had the air of "fuck you" and remained where it stood, back arched, facing its trainer as though he were its enemy in battle.

The trainer, though perturbed, showed no sign of backing down. "I mean it: you better fucking shape up, mister, or no pokeblocks for a week! I mean it! You're acting ridiculous and it's emba-"

The Mightyena let out a rough bark, silencing his trainer and making everyone in the room flinch. It arched its back further and hunkered down, as if threatening to pounce.

My eyes widened, and I looked over to the trainer with a pleading look, silently begging not to push it anymore. The trainer caught on, face loosing its color as he realized the severity of his predicament. "U-uh...o-okay, you can stay over there, I guess...g-good boy..."

The Mightyena's eyes narrowed, though it showed no signs of advancing, remaining crouched and awaiting a chance to attack. It actually looked like it _wanted _to attack, and that it was just awaiting for some kind of excuse to jump out and rip its trainer's head off.

It continued to growl as I made my way over to the counter, clinging to the left wall to keep my distance as I went over, not wanting to provoke the pokemon further. To the trainer I muttered, "I think you better recall your pokemon, kid."

The kid shook his head frantically. "I-I can't. My pokeball isn't working."

A pokeball? Broken? That didn't happen every day - the things might as well be encased in a suit of armor, they were so durable. He must not be using it right; judging by his age and the way the Mightyena was reacting to him, he was probably a rookie trainer, just getting his pokemon recently…probably traded, based on the rebellious nature I'd seen. I remembered back when Dawn had nearly thrown a pokeball out into battle before enlarging the device... "Let me see," I offered, holding my hand out. The kid gave me his pokeball, which I pointed at the Mightyena to recall it.

A beam of red energy lanced out of the ball's central button like a laser, connecting with the pokemon's furry chest. It stayed there for a moment, and I expected the pokemon to fade into a similar energy before the beam snapped back and vanished back into the ball, the central button blinking red in warning of some kind of problem. The pokemon remained where it stood, unfazed by the failed recall attempt.

Blinking, I looked down to the pokeball in surprise, turning it over in my hand to examine it. I popped it open, briefly examining the interior for any kind of damage. The inside was just as I remembered the inside of any pokeball: digital-looking, the metal parts and components glistening from never being touched or handled by the trainer prior, and completely flawless. This pokeball in particular looked factory-new, fresh off the line. The outside even had a glossy sheen to it, marred only by the occasional smudges left from the trainer's hand over time. Completely flawless, and yet the central button blinked red insistently, similar to the way it blinked when a pokemon was just being caught, and it was attempting to contain the restless pokemon's energy to properly encode and store it. But, I had it open now, and the pokemon was outside of its walls; no such pokemon was inside, and it certainly wasn't trying to catch it. So, what was the problem?

I shook my head at the device disapprovingly, looking back to the glaring Mightyena, careful not to meet its eyes. I would have tried catching it the old fashioned way-simply tossing the ball at it to be captured manually-but the Mightyena's apparent temper and the species' tendency of not fucking around made me reluctant to do so; if it still didn't work, getting a ball chucked at it could be enough to make the pokemon snap. Eventually I just handed the ball back to the kid, offering an apologetic shrug. I'd never seen a pokeball malfunction like that prior. "I dunno, I can't see anything wrong with it. Is it new?"

The kid nodded, glancing nervously at his pissed pokemon. "Y-yeah, I bought it yesterday. It has the lifetime warranty and everything." He glowered down at the red and white sphere in his hand, which had decided to stop blinking in protest. "Stupid piece of crap..."

I was tempted to say more, but decided against it. The kid had enough to worry about without me lecturing him about taking on pokemon too tenacious for his skill level. He was probably aware he couldn't handle his pokemon, anyway. "Do you have any other pokemon that can...like, detain it? Hold it down?"

"Nurse Joy called the cops," the kid answered. "They're gonna come to see if they can't talk some sense into him..." He gave a helpless look over to his Mightyena again, then back to me. "I don't understand. He's never acted like this before…he's usually so laid-back. I don't get it…did I do something wrong?"

"I don't think so. There's a bug going around, and it gives pokemon headaches, so he's probably under a lot of stress. It wouldn't be a surprise for a sick pokemon to act strangely."

"Yeah, I guess...thanks anyway, mister."

"No prob." I pat the kid's head through his hat before turning away from the counter over to the PC in the corner, careful to keep from approaching the Mightyena by even a foot. I logged onto the computer terminal and accessed my personal storage unit, withdrawing the only pokemon I had there: Snorlax. I hit '_enter'_ and waited for a moment before a little pokeball rolled out of the small slot in the computer's side like a spare change device on a vending machine, popping the ball into my pocket. I then logged off and made a detour to the other side of the room where my distance with the rogue pokemon would be greatest, heading for the door. I could feel its crimson eyes burning into me the entire time until the blue doors slid shut behind me.

I went back to my truck and back out of the parking lot, watching the Pokemon Center briefly before I pulled out onto the street, my thoughts briefly going back to the trainer. That Mightyena was looking pretty nasty...I myself had seen a similar aggression out of such pokemon before in the past, as their ferocity was no secret, but those had been _wild _Mightyena; the way the kid talked, he'd had the pokemon for a while. He was genuinely clueless as to how he could have angered his pokemon so. Unless it was borderline psychotic beforehand, I had to guess that he must have somehow angered the pokemon into getting so aggressive by triggering some kind of territorial response or something. Mightyena didn't just dink around and fling empty threats around; if they threatened to pounce, they were gonna pounce, and someone was gonna get hurt. _Bad. _And that pokeball...that was weird. A pokemon veteran myself, I'd never seen a pokeball fail to recall a pokemon. I'd seen something akin to it on my first trek when I was going for the Boulder Badge, when I tried to recall Pikachu, only to hit the other Onix instead, but that had been a clear-cut problem: I hit the wrong pokemon. That kid didn't have any other on his belt, so that couldn't be it. It had to be a computer glitch. Although the balls were durable enough to get stepped on by a Rhydon unscathed, even the most durable of machines broke from time to time. It had to be just a fluke...

A pensive silence was all that accompanied the sound of my truck's engine as I rolled up to Professor Oak's lab near the edge of town.

I cut the engine, stepping out and slamming the door slightly behind me, approaching the door. Professor Oak had always been a good friend of mine. He had been a father-figure to me when I was a kid, and he became more like my actual father after my mother died. He was a kind-hearted old man with a flare for pokemon, rivaled only by his love of science. He took care of all my pokemon on my journeys, as neither of us were particularly fond of keeping pokemon used to battling and roaming around in the open cooped up in a pokeball for all that time. I smiled as I knocked on the door, glad to be able to see him after a while. We kept in touch far better than others of my past, since we lived nearby in the same town and all, but it had been a few weeks. It was always good to see the good ol' Professor.

I knocked, but nobody answered, as usual. The professor spent 90% of his time in his lab slightly underground or back tending the pastures he let the pokemon roam around in the back, leaving those spots only to eat something or get some sleep for the next day's study. The door was always unlocked for visitors, which I was thankful for; I could be there for days otherwise. Seeing as he was probably in his lab waiting for me, I popped open the door and stuck my head in, glancing around briefly before stepping inside, closing the door behind me. I headed downstairs, noting that the door to it was slightly ajar and I could hear noises on the other side. No doubt he was down here. Without hesitating I entered the room.

The professor's lab had a vague sense of dieselpunk-ness of it, machinery both old and new cluttering all of the professor's basement, some clearly compromised in places. Some professors liked to hang out around the office, some liked the field...Oak preferred a mixed balance of the two; the scientific atmosphere of his living quarters and the natural, wide-open feel to the pasture out back seemed to fit the bill nicely, as he wouldn't have it any other way. I made my way to the back, looking about casually for one of his aides or the professor himself, when my eyes caught yellow that summoned a smile. The professor had an old Alakazam that he liked to have around, both for the company and for the benefits of having an uber-intelligent telepathic pokemon around in his workspace.

I waved without a second thought, smiling to the old brainiac. "Hey, Alakazam!"

The pokemon, having been facing away, suddenly snapped around to face me like I had startled it. I was about to offer some joking apology about how he was psychic and should have seen me coming, but my smile faded when I saw his eyes narrow, fists clenching around his spoons in each hand as though I had deeply offended it somehow. Turning to face me, Alakazam snorted and began taking quick, stomping steps towards me, intentions clearly not centered around my well-being.

Curiosity turned to panic as he stormed towards me, and I held out a hand as if to ward him off, backpedaling furiously in surprise. "Whoa whoa _whoa_, hold on a minute-!"

"Alakazam!"

A sharp voice snapped through the air and caused Alakazam to stop and turn to investigate the source of the noise. Professor Oak stood in the doorway of his office, arms crossed, looking quite displeased with his pokemon's behavior. "Just what do you think you're doing?" he demanded, obviously quite peeved. "That's not how we greet our guests around here!"

The Alakazam paused, as if confused. He turned his head to look back at me, looking at me with the same hostility, looking well and truly pissed...his expression softened as he looked me over, as though recognizing me for the first time, looking back to Professor Oak in a brief moment of confusion. Seeing no relent in the professor's curt expression, the old pokemon huffed, muttering something like _"Al ala kaz..." _before taking labored steps back towards the stairway I had come out of, apparently quite off-put by the entire situation. I caught a glimpse of him holding his head as though in pain before he disappeared, taking heavy steps upstairs. Never once did he use his telekinesis to float the way like he usually did to relieve his weary legs of the burden.

I scratched my head, heart still pounding slightly as I tried to figure out what the hell just happened. What was that all about? Did Alakazam not realize who I was right away? But I was down here all the time! Surely a pokemon with such a gargantuan IQ could remember the guy from the recent past?

Oak sighed and shook his head, making his way over to me. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "He's been in a particularly salty mood lately...he even chucked one of his spoons at my aide the other day. Nearly gave the poor man a concussion."

"Yeesh," I muttered, tugging at the collar of my shirt. Alakazam had always been a moody one, but I'd never seen him be so aggressive like that. It damn near scared the shit out of me. If he was going to hurt me, why didn't he just use that psychic power to pull me in half? Or just teleport upstairs, or float there? He wasn't usually one for physical activity...the very concept of walking appalled him, as though his old legs weren't deserving of such barbaric behavior. "Grouchy old fart..."

Oak stifled a smile. "I hope you're still talking about Alakazam."

I laughed, grabbing and shaking the hand he extended for me. Good old Professor Oak. "Good to see you. How've things been?"

The Professor shrugged nonchalantly. "Eh, fair enough. A lot of the pokemon have been coming down with that bug going around...speaking of which, did you bring Snorlax?"

I nodded, pulling the little pokeball out of my pocket, tapping the central button to enlarge it to the size of an orange. "One tub of lard, as ordered."

"Oh, goodie, my _favorite,_" the professor replied sarcastically, grinning as he led me back to a sanitation unit near the back of his lab. "I hear things have been going rather well for you lately," he said, running a quick diagnostics check on the equipment before hitting the key to close the door behind me, which gave a hiss as it pressurized.

I nodded, glancing back casually at the closed door. "Yeah, things have been great. Dawn moved in and helped pull me out of the gutter."

"That's good to hear." A few more mechanisms hummed on as a light puff of something white came out from one of the sprinkler units overhead. The professor frowned, then typed in something else. A delicate mist came from all of the sprinklers now, filling the room with a light haze that smelled slightly of lemons and hand-sanitizer. "I'm glad you finally found someone to settle down with. She matches you perfectly, you know."

I stammered at first, rubbing the back of my head. I could feel a light blush crawl over my cheeks. I wanted to say "no, it's not like that," but something inexplicable stayed my tongue, keeping me from correcting him. Instead I sad, "Uh...you think so?"

"Absolutely. You both love pokemon, at the very least, and you two always got along well together, according to Professor Rowan. I know _I _certainly approve of the girl." He looked back to me and smiled, as though he were proud of an achievement of mine. "It's good to see you getting together with a good girl. Those aren't easy to come by, you know. You're very lucky."

I was a bit embarrassed, but I nodded appreciatively. "T-thanks, Professor."

A chime rang before the professor could say anything else. He ran a quick check on the screen in front of him, then nodded. "Alright, the room's sterile. Go ahead and let out Snorlax. Oh, and give him some distance when you throw it; I don't want to get crushed by the lummox."

I grinned, tossing the pokeball out towards the center of the room where he wouldn't spawn on top of us-something I'd had the unfortunate experience of doing in the past by accident, hence the professor's remark. There was the customary flash of light and swirl of white energy before the giant materialized in front of us, forcing himself upright as he muttered _"Snorlax" _and rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Hey there, Snorlax," I said, pleased to see one of my older pokemon again.

Professor Oak kept a neutral expression, eying Snorlax pensively as he smacked his lips, glancing lazily around the room. "How do you feel?"

Snorlax paused, as if considering the question carefully. After a while I began to think maybe he'd fallen back asleep sitting upright - as he'd done on more than one occasion before - and I was going to try to rouse him into answering before the lazy giant suddenly let out a deep, lamenting moan and flopped back onto his back, shaking the room as half a ton of muscle and fat slammed down. "Come on, Snorlax!" I chastised, thinking maybe it was just complaining about being out of its pokeball; I knew how he started dreading coming out of the thing, as he was again forced to try to quell his near-endless hunger. Oak started walking around Snorlax as I continued to scold him. "Honestly, it's not that bad, you big baby. Just because you've got to eat and sleep now like the rest of us doesn't mean it's the end of the world. I don't know how you made it out in the wild before this; you're so spoiled, it's not even fu-"

"Ash," Professor Oak interjected, waving me over. "Look at this."

Intrigued by the seriousness of his tone, I walked around to the other side of Snorlax as instructed, following his gaze. I was just as intrigued - if not a bit confused - by what I saw.

Snorlax was laying back, clutching his head. He appeared to be in pain.

"What?" I scratched my head at what I was looking at. "Even Snorlax has that bug..."

Professor Oak shook his head, his expression slightly grave. "No...I don't think we're dealing with a mere bug here."

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

Oak wandered over to the terminal adjacent to the one he was standing at before, pressing a few keys. There was a brief pause before a blue-green screen appeared, showing several of Snorlax's traits, such as stats, information, ability, and status. He pointed at the "STATUS" symbol, where the word "Healthy" beamed at him in green letters. "That proves it. It's just like I suspected..."

"What do you mean?" I repeated, not following where he was going. "What's this prove?"

Apparently not hearing my question, Professor Oak looked to me, thinking his next words out carefully. "Have you ever heard of the Pokerus virus?"

"Pokerus? Yeah, I've heard of it. It's that one disease that amps up a pokemon's stats when it levels up, right?"

"Correct." The professor nodded, looking back to the screen thoughtfully. "A few years ago, my colleague Professor Elm came into possession of a strain of the famous Pokerus virus, contained in an artificial environment within a storage capsule. Being such a finicky virus, we had been unable to manufacture or manipulate the virus itself in the field, as it quickly either died off or slipped out of our possession due to its flighty nature. Getting a capsule of that virus was a major accomplishment in itself." A hand drifted to his chin, tapping it lightly as he leaned against the terminal. "A year after that, I asked if I could use some of the virus in an experiment concerning the transmission of the disease itself. He sent me a small sample of the strain to use, and I went ahead with doing tests to prove whether or not viruses and diseases could be transmitted the same way healing items can be beamed into the pokeball and used to heal the pokemon inside. Try as I might, though, I couldn't do it. The laws of nature simply don't allow for viral infection to be spread through data transmission via pokeball. I inspired a few more colleagues of mine to try the same technique with other viruses, such as the flu or the common cold to see if it varied. It doesn't. There's no way a pokemon in a ball can catch a disease on the inside of a pokeball."

Blinking in surprise, I looked to Snorlax, who was still clutching his head and moaning in agony, jaw clenching and unclenching as he gritted his teeth. "But...Snorlax's got it, and he's been in his pokeball this whole time. That means it's possible."

The professor shook his head, tapping the "Healthy" symbol. "This computer uses the same technology as your pokedex when reading a pokemon's status and afflictions. If Snorlax had a disease, it would say so. This is no disease."

I read over the word "Healthy" and shook my head. "Then...what is it?"

"I don't know. All I can tell is that it's not a bug and it's not natural. There's something else at work here that we don't understand."

While this revelation didn't make a ton of sense to me, Snorlax's grunts and groans read as clear as day. Finally I took pity on poor Snorlax and called him back to his pokeball, where he wouldn't be afflicted by the pain. The red beam that lanced out from the pokeball connected with Snorlax...stopped a moment, then shot back into the ball's central button, which blinked red in error. _Just like that trainer..._ I paused for a moment, looking back down to the ball, then to professor Oak with a helpless expression. _What's going on?_

The professor's grave look didn't comfort me in the slightest, nor did his next words. "I think we may be dealing with something more complicated than a regular infection."

_**AN**_

Okay, here we are; chapter 2. I hope I didn't make the ending sound too rushed; let me know if I did.

I was considering going back to chapter one and altering the whole "1st person POV" thing, since I got a little worried about how Dawn isn't the main character all the time, but I eventually just did what I saw a friend of mine do and swapped back and forth between Ash and Dawn, who will be our beloved protagonists for the duration of the story, as I'm sure you've guessed by now. No blood and guts yet, but the other most important element to a horror story is a good, defined plotline, which I think I'm doing a good job with so far. If not, lemme know, and I'll come up with something better.

Well, that's one more chapter down. Leave me a review saying about things you'd like fixed or something you'd like to see later, and I'll definitely take it into consideration. Much abliged,

~The Librarian


	3. Et Tu, Poké?

_(WARNING: The following chapter contains descriptive scenes and the beginning of violence that may or may not convince me to kick this thing into M for content. Squeamish people and/or Pikachu fanatics are discouraged from continuing. Going on anyway? Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you.)_

_((ANOTHER WARNING: The following chapter _also _contains Ash/Dawn fluff, so those who don't like the pairing, avert your eyes. Eat your hearts out, fellow Pearshippers!! XD))_

_(((DISCLAIMER: I don't own _The Grudge _or _Paranormal Activity,_ although I like to think _The Wrath Of Spiritomb _is mine. I don't have anything to do with any copyrights, so fuck off, lawyers. Go kick a Kakuna in a Beedrill nest.)))_

* * *

**_Et Tu, Poké?_**

* * *

_Dawn's POV_

* * *

It took me a lot of courage to follow up with what I was planning to do, but for a chance for Ash and I to...what, I couldn't help but wonder? What did I hope to accomplish from this? Was I challenging him to see how long it took either of us to burst out and confess our feelings, assuming he had any for me? Was I looking for a chance to see Ash as my savior, come to comfort me in my time of need? Did I just want to see Ash piss himself? Either way, I was willing to go through with it. Assuming there was a risk, I was willing to take it.

It was only a few hours that Ash was gone, but it felt like an eternity to me. I tried to watch some TV, but naturally nothing was on. I spent a little time loving on Pikachu, who was very fond of the attention, but not the migraine wracking his conscience. He laid right there with his head on my lap for a while, but after some anxious time trying to get some sleep, Pikachu finally just jumped up clumisly off me, grumbled grouchily to himself, and dragged himself up the stairs to Ash's bedroom. I followed him and closed the door to let him get some rest, then went over to my own room to kill some time playing with my pokemon. After all, no one had pokemon quite as energetic and bumbling as I did!

Apparently not, though. Today, when I let my team out of their balls, all I received for my happy greeting was a collection of moans and mumbles as all the pokemon I had(bar Mamoswine, of course; no way I'd let him out in the house) and a handful of accusing leers from having woken them from their respite of the pain. _All of my pokemon are sick, too?_I shook my head apologetically. Piplup was holding his forehead in his stubby wings, glaring up at me out of the corner of his eyes. The normally chipper and cheerful Buneary muttered curses in her own tongue beneath her breath. Pachirisu, who I would normally be trying to pry off the ceiling fan or catching him as he bounced off the walls, slumped down and buried his face in his tail, not even saying so much as a cheerful greeting. Ambipom hissed something as Quilava tried to relieve the pain by beating his head against the bed frame while Togekiss snapped irritably to stop, as the resounding bangs were making her throbbing head hurt more. I said I was sorry, receiving glares uncharacteristic of my usually peppy team as I tried to recall them to their respective pokeballs. Much to my surprise and my team's abhorrance, I could not recall them; try as I might, not a one of their pokeballs would function properly, the laser connecting with them just long enough to make its decision and shoot back, the central buttons blinking red at me like a collection of eyes winking in mockery. Apologizing profusely, I went and got them each some Tylenol to deal with the headaches, though I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't do any good, closing the door to my bedroom to let the poor pokemon rest. While I was curious as to why all of their pokeballs suddenly went glitchy at once, most of my focus was on how to occupy myself until Ash returned and how I felt guilty about trapping my own pokemon to their own agony. The poor things...I really hoped this bug-thing got under control soon.

I resigned myself to watching TV despite the fact that everything was a rerun and idly inspected the pokeballs of my team as I waited. It was around 6 that I finally heard the blue ford pulling back into the driveway, and I nearly squealed in delight. Finally! He was home! I sprang up to greet him, readily waiting by the door. No sooner did it open did I spring out from my position, declaring "Rape!" as I latched onto him and nearly brought us both down to the floor in a welcome-home-hug.

Ash gave a startled noise, supporting our combined weight relatively easily(as I weighed absolutely nothing) before his surprised expression turned sly. "Hehe, I told you, it's not 'rape,' it's 'surprise sex you didn't know you wanted _yet.'"_

I arched an eyebrow at him, flicking his nose as I pried myself off him--I found it odd how reluctant I was to do so--and wandered back into the house. "Fine, ruin my fun. No dinner for assholes that won't let me rape them."

Ash just snickered and came in after me, closing the door behind him. The meal I'd made for us, simple though it was, permeated his nostrils and caused him to wander over to the kitchen to see what delicacy I had made. On the counter was a platter of magikarp fillets, sprinkled with a bit of lemon pepper and baked until they were crispy brown at the edges, just the way he likes it. Being a pokemon lover, Ash tended to be rather squeamish about eating pokemon--he'd met and befriended far too many in the past to bring himself to eat them, hence why he tended to stick to artificial things and declared himself a semi-vegetarian. Nice, baked magikarp, however, was one of those foods that he could bring himself to eat--they're called the chicken of the sea for a reason--and found his mouth watering, approaching the platter with a hungry expression.

I picked up the serving fork and smacked his hand with it, smiling at the yelp he let out. "Uh-uh-uh," I said, waving the fork to emphasize. "No dinner for assholes that won't let me rape them."

Ash rubbed his hand, eying the food eagerly. "B-but, you already did! When I walked in!"

"Oh, so _now _it's rape?" I rolled my eyes, slapping the fork down. "Whatever. Eat up, asshole."

Not needing to be told twice, Ash quickly grabbed one of the fillets I made and scarfed it down the way only he could, practically inhaling the stuff. How he avoided choking as he went on to his second and piece is beyond me. We ate in relative silence, mostly because he wouldn't be able to respond the way he was stuffing his face and that he was so consumed in consuming that he would barely hear me, but I didn't mind. Ash loves food, and I guess I was just content with him being satisfied. Until he got hungry and whined about it later, anyway.

"How's Pikachu?" Ash asked between bites, somehow able to find room for coherency around the fish in his mouth.

I took small bites of the meat before me, eating much more daintily than my companion, who acted as though he hadn't seen food in days. "He's sleeping. The poor guy couldn't get any rest on the couch with me, so he plopped onto your bed for some Z's."

"I see." Ash's gaze drifted over slightly to the pokeballs on the kitchen table, blinking slightly as he considered something. "Pokeballs not working?"

I shook my head. I didn't know why, but that look he was giving me seemed a little anxious. I decided it was best not to bother him; I'd just get them looked at tomorrow. "No, I just let my team out for a little romping time. I think they're asleep by now, too."

Ash nodded, thought clearly unconvinced this was true as he continued to eat, redirecting his focus to the magikarp fillets that were quickly vanishing before him.

When we had our fill, the platter was licked clean, and I about had to force my way to the sink to keep him from literally licking it. I know he likes his fish, but geez! Self control much?! "How was it?" I asked, as though I didn't know what he was about to say.

"Mm...delicious."

I figured as much. "You eat like a munchlax."

"At least I don't _look _like a munchlax!"

"Ooh, _toché._ You don't mean that, though."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

I batted my eyes playfully, mincing past the counter to the living room. "Oh, just cuz you know I'm the _cutest_ girl, like, _ever."_

Ash shrugged. "Eh, I'll give you that much."

I stopped, looking over to him in surprise. Did he just....agree with me? Call me cute? I wasn't expecting that. I would have thought for sure that he was going to give some kind of smart comeback about how "I wish" and a few other things I would have taken in stride and shoved back at him...we always play-bickered like that. That last remark...that caught me completely off guard. It was flattering, but shocking as well. Did he really just say what I think he did?

Ash must have realized what he just said, as his face began to heat up as he floundered in an effort to recover. "I-I mean, um...well, like, I meant...j-just..."

I could feel a like shade of pink crawl over my cheeks as I made my way over to him, putting a finger on his lips to silence him. "Shh...don't change it. That was really sweet. Leave it just like that. Kay?"

Though still looking a bit sheepish, Ash nodded, remaining silent after I removed my finger. That blush of his contrasted with his gorgeous eyes and made him look so innocent...I couldn't hold back a giggle. He looked so cute!

Coyly I minced back to the living room, picking up a little DVD box I'd gotten while he was gone. "Well, Mr. Ketchum, since I'm the cutest girl ever, I don't suppose you'd have a problem watching a movie with me tonight, would you?"

Ash blinked as he saw the DVD I was holding: a movie titled _'The Wrath Of Spiritomb', _the holographic cover shimmering slightly as I waved it about. Undoubtedly he'd heard of it, as it only was advertised every other commercial break. The genre of the movie--strictly horror, rated R for the content--was no secret, nor were the reviews it had received on its debut, where every other movie critic in the world basically said that it scared them shitless. Basically, the movie equalled out to a pokemon-centric combination of _Paranormal Activity _and _The Grudge, _living up to its reputation of being a piss-yourself-scary kind of film. For Ash, seeing such a film as a personal challenge to his pride wouldn't have been so unusual, if it wasn't coming from me. He knew as well as I did how easily I scared; horror films are just not my thing. I like cute, beautiful, meaningful kind of things, hence why I liked contests so much; they weren't just pretty, they were deep. It went to show the relationship between coordinator and pokemon as much as it did the skill of the two. Horror films, if done correctly, could be just as meaningful, although by no means would I be enjoying the inner meaning that I see behind the movie. Unlike ghosts or banshees, pokemon are real, as was Spiritomb. It was common knowledge that a rogue ghost-type could be a thing to have nightmares about, hence why they had all the folklore and rumors floating about them. To see a movie that is not only scary in itself but also frightening because it could, technically, actually happen to someone..._that _was where the true horror came from. Not just from the movie itself; the fact that this stuff could genuinely happen to me. And it was scary. My coy, playful front betrayed violently the way that I shook inside at the concept, but I couldn't back down now.

That said, it wasn't enough to keep Ash from visibly hesitating, pondering the idea with caution. "I don't know, Dawn," he told me, scratching the back of his head. "I don't want to scar you for life or anything...you sure?"

It was touching to see he was willing to lay down his pride for my well-being, but it wasn't enough to make me back down. I had a plan; this needed to happen. I couldn't take 'no' for an answer. "What's the matter?" I asked tauntingly, grinning at his reluctance. "Our dear old Ash isn't getting _chicken _on me, is he? Our homely little Feebas has lost his nerve? Oh dear, this_ is _a tragedy..."

While Ash's heart sometimes got the better of him, there was no way he could dodge such an outright challenge like that. In a swift motion he snatched the movie out of my hand, accepted my challenge, and grinned. "I'll get the lights."

_Bingo._ "And _I'll _get the popcorn!"

5 minutes later, we were both on the couch, smiling smugly to give off the feeling of confidence, a bowl of popcorn settled between us. The shades were down and the lights were turned off to plunge the room into darkness, our only source of light being the TV screen for extra effect. I had changed into a pink nightgown that went to my knees forcomfort, blanket over my legs to keep hot kernels from scalding my skin. Examining them briefly, I determined that I needed a tan rather badly. I looked like a bed sheet, I was so white, and the movie hadn't even started!

Ash stuffed a mouthful of popcorn into his mouth. "Alright, what's the plan?" he asked, muffled slightly through the food. Arceus forbid the guy learned any manners...

I ignored his mouthful of kernels and tapped my chin, thinking up some guidelines to go by. "Kay...neither of us can get up to leave for anything, cuz that could make us miss the scary scenes. The blanket can't come past our legs, we have to keep eyes open at all times, and no looking away. The first one who screams, cries, or can't watch it anymore loses."

Ash mulled the rules over a moment. "Hm...plugging up all the loopholes. Not leaving yourself much leeway, I see."

I nodded confidently, covering up my feelings of dread with resolve. "No way I'm losing to you, Ash Ketchum. Get ready to lose."

"We'll see about that!" Thus, Ash popped the DVD in, hit 'play,' and the challenge was on.

We both regretted it almost immediately.

True to its reputation, _The Wrath Of Spiritomb _proved to be one of the most frightening movies I'd ever had the misfortune to watch. The plot was relatively simple and straight-forward; a bunch of kids went into this old abandoned house, where rumors were going around that it was haunted by a total of 103 souls of the people that had lived there over the ages, hence why they were dared to go in there. Actually, one kid was dared to go in, who was secretly terrified of the concept, and the bickering and "oh yeah, well I bet you couldn't, either!" match that ensured ended up in having all 5 of the kids--I could see right away where it was going; 103 plus 5 was 108, the number of souls Spiritomb is said to embody--eventually pinned with the challenge of spending the night in the dreaded house. To prove it was haunted, one of the kids had the brilliant idea to set up surveillance cameras and carry around recorders to get some evidence that there was(or wasn't, as the kid kept insisting) something haunting the house, hence why the movie was able to be made, apparently. They took up respective spots around the house, made sure the cameras were rolling, and planned to spend the night.

None of them made it out alive.

Sure enough, something _was_haunting the house; a embodiment of ghastly-purple plasma and swirling green shapes centered around a bizarre little rock called an Odd Keystone that could be identified as a Spritomb tormented the kids with spooky noises, possession of objects, and overall just making them scream and fear for their lives before killing them off one by one, sucking them into the abyss and adding their souls to its being. They tried to leave after the second kid went missing, but the Spiritomb wouldn't let them; it sealed the doors and windows off with energy resembling that used in the move Protect, keeping the kids inside and preventing them from escaping their impending doom. The cameras rolled the entire time, and in one case a kid holding a recorder caught a glimpse of the Spritomb's trademark sneering face formation an instant before the camera went glitchy and the screen was consumed in purple energy and green blobs, the kid screaming the entire time. When the remaining kids came to investigate, all they found was the scorched and broken camera.

I think I speak for both of us when I say Ash and I were positively petrified, ruing the moment that the DVD ever popped into the TV to begin this...horror-fest! Ash wasn't one to scare that easily, but I could read in his expression that he was pretty freaked out. I had to say that he was pretty good about it, clenching his fists and grinding his teeth as he tried to prove he was the tough guy we both knew he wasn't. I, on the other hand, wasn't faring so well. My heart was pounding fast enough I think to about send me into cardiac arrest. I had no idea what was keeping me glue to the TV screen and preventing me from screaming, though I suspect it was the need to outdo Ash's feigned bravery, biting my tongue during the scary moments to keep from letting out a yelp. The "blanket can't go past our legs" rule was quickly abandoned, by me, specifically, clinging to it as though it was my only lifeline, buried beneath it while keeping my eyes open, unshielded from the fright. I couldn't believe I was actually watching this. I had no idea where the popcorn bowl went; it disappeared, along with my willingness to continue. That technically meant I lost, but I still couldn't stop watching; it was as though the Spiritomb from the movie had reached out and used Confusion to hold my head in place and hold my eyes open, preventing me from escaping, just like the kids it was busy consuming.

That movie couldn't end soon enough.

When it did, I could feel Ash relaxing the muscles he'd been tensing to brace himself against the terror, sighing in relief along with me. I don't think we were as relieved to have not lost to one another as we were just glad we managed to survive the film. The end coming on, the screen now showed a Pokedex page on the Spritomb we just watched torment everyone, which would be an extra bonus for trainers out there that were looking for an easy update. _Spiritomb: the Forbidden Pokemon. It is said to be imprisoned in the Odd Keystone after doing bad deeds 500 years ago. It is apparently made of a collective of 108 souls._

I let out a nervous chuckle, assuming that the movie had ended and that the fright was over. "Man," I breathed, lowering my defenses in my relief. "I guess they weren't kidding when they said the movie scared them shi-"

Suddenly the screen erupted into a tableau of horrifying images of Spiritomb tormenting its victims, the faces of its terrified prey and its sneering, evil grin flashing by in rapid-fire bursts, momentarily illuminating the room like a fireworks display with all the colors flashing by. Both Ash and I nearly leaped out of our skins, our defenses lowered after assuming the scary moments were over. No doubt the people who made it planned to do this on purpose.

The Pokedex screen returned, the edges of the red device shimmering in ghastly purple energy that looked all-too familiar to us, who had just seen said energy consume 5 kids. In the corner of the digital screen, the words "..._and counting" _were carved in red, jagged letter into the Pokedex page, causing the device to spark, glitch out, and go blank, causing the screen to go black along with it. The credits then began to poke up from the bottom of the page, signalling that the movie was well and truly over.

The ending had scared both of us, but for me, it had been very frightening. After lowering my guard so willingly, so relieved to make it through, the sudden burst of scare that ensured made it right into my weak points, since my defenses were lowered. It not only scared the living daylights out of me, I couldn't help but feel a little betrayed by the movie itself, which I had trusted to be over only to be tricked into a false sense of security. Unable to contain myself and with no defenses to cling to, I couldn't bear it anymore. I whimpered, buried my face in my hands, and started to cry.

Ash snapped out of his dazed stupor when he heard my gasping sobs, instantly flicking off the TV and scooting over towards me, putting his arms around me to comfort me. "Shh," he cooed, hugging me tight. The challenge we agreed to didn't seem to have any meaning now, his concern for me drowning out the fact that he'd won. "It's alright, Dawn, it's over. It's okay. Shh, calm down...I gotcha. It's okay."

Completely undone, I leaned into him and continued to cry, arms looping around his neck, face buried into his shoulder. It didn't even matter that I lost, or that our position could be considered awkward at any other time. Dying for some kind of comfort, I hugged him back, nuzzled into his side, and cried into his shoulder. He was warm and secure, and I was scared and shivering. He was like a bastion of safety to me.

Ash continued to hug me, stroking my blue hair with one hand as he continued to mutter assuring things into my air, rocking me back and forth gently as he held me. Our joined warmth was blissful; he was so embracing, so caring...I completely forgot about my being scared, wanting to bury myself into him and never have him let go. He made me feel so secure, holding me like he never had before, being so loving to get me to stop crying...it was wonderful. Sitting there in the dark, holding onto each other, listening to him coo softly into my ear...he rubbed my back a bit, and I felt shivers creep up my spine when his fingers ran over my bare skin. It was so nice...I wanted more. I wanted to feel more of his touch, crawl into his hug and never come back out again...the feelings I'd been having returned, the phrase _Dawn Ketchum _ringing in my ears yet again. It wasn't so much that I wanted to marry him as it was that I never wanted to be without him, living the rest of my life in his warm embrace...words can't describe what I was feeling then. It was so heavenly.

Eventually I must have stopped crying, as we were eventually sent into a comforting silence as we clung to one another, sharing our warmth with each other. "I'm sorry," he said at last, resting his cheek on my head. "I knew we shouldn't have watched that...I knew it was a bad idea..."

I shook my head, nuzzling into his neck slightly. That was Ash for you; so damn caring that he was willing to put the blame on himself to spare me the discomfort, relieving me of the pain by taking it up like a martyr. That's one of the things I loved the most about him: he has such a big heart. Such a loving boy... "Don't apologize," I said, just as softly as he. "It was my idea. It wasn't you."

Ash still wasn't convinced. "I should have said no. I knew it was bad; I didn't want you to get scared, but I was just so-"

I murmured "shh" and reached around his head a bit to put my finger on his lips, hushing him. Always so willing to take the blame... "It's okay, Ash. Really."

Still unsure that he wasn't at fault somehow, Ash gave in, more focused now on my well-being. "Are you alright?"

I nodded, trying to move into him more. His embrace was just so comforting, I couldn't let go of him. He was so warm. "Just hold me for a little while, okay?"

I could feel his cheeks warm a little bit, but he complied, fastening his arm around my shoulders a bit more securely as we embraced one another in a comfortable silence.

I closed my eyes and sighed in contentment, so at ease now that I had my Ash to cling to. _My _Ash...the Ash that I know would go to no end to make me feel better, or soothe me in my time of need. He'd give so much, all the while asking only for my comfort in return...such a sweet boy. So loving, so caring...it's hard not to love a guy like him. At this point, I was genuinely confused as to what had convinced me to leave him for almost 10 years to pursue my own selfish desires that left me unsatisfied anyway. Why didn't I stay with him? He had been hurting, and I had left him in his most desperate hour, dooming him to the solitude he wrapped himself in...for what? My dreams? My own petty life? None of those things were worth leaving poor Ash behind like that. He'd never do something like that to me. He'd hound me down and throw his arms around me in an effort to make me feel even the tiniest bit better...holding him now, I felt a pang of guilt spike through my heart like a needle. How could I have left him? He was hurting, and it had taken me almost 10 years away from him to realize that I had been a bad friend. Leaving him alone like that...unspeakable. How heartless did a person have to be to do something like that? And to think that he would only ever hold me to make me feel better...I didn't deserve him. Yet here he was, holding me close, hugging me in the dark...such a loving boy. Such a sweet, precious, loving boy...

We sat there alone in the dark in silence, deep in thought as we held one another. I don't know what he was thinking, but I knew that I loved where we were, and that I never wanted to be away from him for a moment. I loved him, I realized; that was what I was feeling. The need to hold him, be with him, stay at his side forever...that was love, wasn't it? Isn't that what people felt when they loved someone? Maybe I really did love him. And by the way he held me and cherished our friendship despite how I abandoned him all those years ago, he loved me too; love made people ignore all flaws present for one another. I wasn't sure, but maybe he did love me. Maybe he loved me back. I wasn't sure...maybe I'd have to ask him about it later. Maybe we had a future together beyond being friends and tenants after all...

We were both so consumed in our thoughts and embrace that we didn't hear the thumping noises of something coming down the stairs, nor did we realize that there was a presence standing on the table in front of us.

Ash figured it out first, hearing a light breathing noise that wasn't one of us, glancing over to the table between us and the TV. He turned on the TV with the remote, using the blue screen of the DVD channel to illuminate the silhouette in front of us. Judging by the small stature, the familiar shape, and trademark ears and tail against the light of the TV, there was only one person that fit the bill. "Pikachu," he said, sitting up with me a bit more, though his hold on me never relented, to which I was grateful. "I didn't see you there, buddy. Dawn and I were watching a movie, and, well...she got a little scared." I nuzzled into the crook of his neck a bit more, cheek against his warm skin to subtly assure him that it was okay. "Did you sleep well? I hope we didn't wake you."

Pikachu, in response, said absolutely nothing, standing before us with his hands to his sides, arched slightly as though confronting something. His chest shook slightly with every breath he took, sounding slightly raspy as he stared us down, black eyes invisible in the darkness that cloaked his face. He looked like he was containing himself for something.

Guessing he was a bit peeved from being woken up, Ash shrugged sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I guess we had the volume up a little too loud. You're not mad, are you?"

Again Pikachu didn't respond, glowering ominously at us through the darkness covering his face. On closer inspection of his silhouette, I could see jagged misshapes in his normally perfectly smooth outline, indicating spots where his fur was either ruffled or missing. I could also see, ever so slightly, that with every breath he took, Pikachu trembled slightly, combined with the raspiness to give the impression that he was bursting over with pent-up anger and barely able to control himself. I tensed slightly; something wasn't right.

Ash must have felt it, because he started to show his own concern as well. "...Pikachu, what's wrong? Did something happen?" Receiving silence as a reply, Ash leaned forward a bit to stand up-

A flash of light accompanied a bolt of lightning that suddenly struck in the space between Ash and my head, summoning a surprised yelp from both of us. Where the bolt landed, a scorched fume rose up, little embers showing where the heat of the electricity threatened to set the couch aflame.

Both of us were all the way up in an instant, backing away slightly. "Arceus, Pikachu, what the hell?!" he demanded, approaching the light switch on the far side of the room in fearful haste. "What's gotten into y..." His voice drifted off as the light came on, eyes widening as he took in the sight of his friend. "P-Pikachu..."

My previous suspicion about Pikachu's fur hadn't been far off the mark; large clumps of it were missing out of his head, body, and arms, giving the distant similarity of a pokemon with mange, small amounts of red leaking up in spots where it had been clearly torn out. The pokemon was now visibly trembling, fists clenched and breaths clearly rasping in barely-contained rage that seethed up from somewhere deep within him, threatening to erupt at any minute. His red cheeks sparked from the recently cast Thunderbolt, feet dug into the table in a type of battlestance. The part of him that frightened me the most--apart from his hostility and frenzied appearance--was his eyes; the normally crystalline black spheres in his head were sunken deep into his skull, pupils dilating disproportionately for the light level, a glassy haze covering the surface of his eyes just barely hiding the fact that they were red and bloodshot. His teeth were clenched tightly against one another and threatened to shatter, jaw locked, glaring into his former master as though he'd murdered his offspring. The look on his face was positively murderous.

Something was very, very wrong.

Ash swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd never seen his pokemon like this before. What the hell had happened? "Pikachu-"

He was cut off again by a second Thunderbolt that erupted from Pikachu, striking the wall where Ash's hand had been not a split second before. The wood splintered and burst out from the sheer force of the strike, sending tiny embers and the stench of burning through the room.

Ash yelped, shying away from the site of the impact. "_Pikachu! _What the fuck?! It's me, Ash! It's _Pikapi!"_

Ash's words seemed to fall on deaf ears as Pikachu gave a shrieking hiss--a noise neither of us had ever heard the pokemon make before--before his tail suddenly solidified and turned iron-hard in a metal-on-metal noise, leaping off the table with force enough to snap the wood furniture in half while swinging his torso to bring his Iron Tail attack to bear. Ash gave a cry and dove to the side a split second before the attack landed where his head had been, smashing through the wood like a wrecking ball. He scrambled away from the crazed pokemon before him, backing into the kitchen.

I screamed, coming to my senses, approaching to talk some sense into him. "Pikachu, stop! Get a hold of yourself-"

Pikachu whipped his head around with enough force to make his neck give an audible snap, giving me a glare that could have stopped a bullet in his track.

I froze, breath hitching as our eyes met. I know Pikachu; I haven't been with him for nearly as long as Ash had, but I've been there long enough to know him, get a feel for him, know what he does and doesn't do. I've looked Pikachu in the eyes enough to know what's there and what to expect. The eyes I stared into now, though black enough to match, bore almost no similarity to the ones I had seen every other day beforehand. In his eyes I saw no trace of familiarity he usually had when looking at me, no sense of warmth he got from seeing someone he knew and cared for. I saw an anger that I had never seen before in the eyes of anyone--Pikachu or otherwise--enough hate in his glare to cause my blood to chill. I know Pikachu. I know who Pikachu is. That said, I didn't recognize a single thing about the pokemon standing in front of me, boring his stare through my head, as if looking straight through me. I know Pikachu.

This wans't him.

A high-pitched, hissing scream filled my senses as Pikachu turned his sights on me, his back to the trainer he'd just tried to kill. I backed away with steps slowed with fear, now aware that my life could be in danger. He tensed his legs, his outline blurring a split second before he lunged through the air with a Quick Attack, slamming full-force into my gut and knocking me to the ground.

He was on me in a second.

I screamed and pushed him away, which would have normally been enough to knock him off me--he barely weighed anything past 13 pounds--but his agility and skill in combat is what really kept me pinned. Right away I shoved him off me, sending him to the floor, only to have him land back on his feet and snap back onto me, scratching at my face with his claws and biting my hands as I tried to keep him off. I brought my hands under him and flipped him over my head, only to have him rebound off the wall and slam onto my chest, now scratching at my stomach with his feet clinging to my nightgown. The skin on my stomach split beneath his sharpened claws, and I cried in pain, beating on his back and trying to get him to stop. Electric bolts and sparks flew from his cheeks as he tore away at me, and my entire stomach felt like it was on fire...

Ash appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Pikachu by the ears, yanking him up off me and hefting him into the air. Pikachu let out a sharp noise as Ash suddenly jolted upright and screamed, electricity coursing through his body. He tried to let go, but his muscles were unwillingly tensing and causing Ash to tighten his grip on the electric mouse, ensuring its attack would flow through him freely. Without thinking I grabbed the leg of the broken table and uppercut Pikachu with it, knocking him out of Ash's hands and opening the circuit, sending him stumbling back as Pikachu was knocked into the air before falling through the floor. The brief moment the table leg connected with him was enough to send a bolt of electricity through my arm, lancing up to my elbow and causing the muscles to clench and swell, throbbing in pain. I dropped the leg, restraining the urge to scream as I came to Ash's side, seeing if he was okay. "Ash!"

"I'm okay," he grunted, quickly getting up as he shot a fearful glance at where Pikachu had landed.

Pikachu didn't move right away, slowly getting up off his back to look at us, sunken eyes glimmering with hate. He placed a paw absently on his hip where the table leg had connected, apparently detached from the pain. Eyes locked on us, he turned his head to the side until it gave a sharp _crack,_ head rolling back on his shoulders the other way until it gave another _crack, _eyes rolling distantly in his head as he stared into us. I could see the red where my blood was covering his fingers...or was that from him, claws digging into his paws so hard that he drew blood?

Ash and I tensed, taking a step back as he picked up the table leg I'd used just a moment ago, stepping in front of me protectively. "Pikachu," he said, voice shaking as he held the cudgel out in front of him threateningly. "S-stop it. Please. I-I don't wanna hurt you....b-but I will, if y-you don't stop it."

Pikachu didn't reply, simply staring at us with a blank expression, completely unmoving. At first I thought Ash had somehow gotten through to him until his face suddenly contorted in anger, scowling and baring his teeth at us, giving us a look that I can only describe as "rabid." He shrieked that scream of his at us again, every movement he made positively dripping with hate, cheeks sparking as he prepared again to strike. I saw the muscles in his legs ripple as he bent down on all fours, arching his back like a rogue cat about to pounce a second before he vaulted himself through the air, claws out, teeth bared and snarling, clearly intent on ripping us limb from limb.

I screamed and covered my face. Ash swung the table leg and hit Pikachu aside the head..._hard._

There was a sharp _crack _as Pikachu's skull and the makeshift weapon collided, giving a sharp hollow noise that vaguely reminded me of a baseball being struck by a bat in the "sweet spot," where enough force was present to set the ball--in this case, Pikachu's body--sailing through the air at breakneck speeds. The yellow mouse flew like a torpedo straight into the wall across the room, bouncing off sharply and ricocheting towards the stairs, where his body bounced off the railing, tumbled lifelessly down a few steps like a slinky, and landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, body slacking and going limp like a sack of potatoes. There he lay, completely unmoving and silent, a tiny puddle of blood beginning to form as red oozed out of the spot on his head.

For a long moment, the world stood still.

Ash dropped the table leg, which bounced harshly off the floor, collapsing to his knees as he quickly became hysterical. Tears streamed down his eyes, staring at the motionless body of his best friend across the room, ignoring the pain that generated as his muscles throbbed from being recently electrocuted. He shook his head slowly, unwilling to believe what just happened. "N...no.....P-Pi...pikachu..."

Coming out of my own daze, heart audibly pounding in my ears, I leaned down beside him and put my arms around him without a second thought, breaking my stare away from Pikachu's motionless body. He didn't respond right away, staring in horror across the room until a hand came up to hold my arm, pressing it into him in an effort to draw out more comfort. "Shh," I cooed, much like the way he'd done for me not long ago...except that this was a tragedy. It was crazy. This was all just so crazy... "Shh, it's okay. It's okay..." Stupid me. Of course it wasn't okay. Pikachu...I don't even know. He went crazy...attacked us...now, he was over there across the room, bleeding out on the floor... _What the hell just happened? Why did this happen? Why? _A million questions raced through my mind, but none of them mattered right now. I wasnt' going to get an answer at the moment, and Ash needed me. I tightened my embrace as he began to tremble, now freely sobbing, eyes never once leaving the yellow body quickly being accompanied by red across the floor. "Shh...shh, it's okay...I've got you. It's okay..."

I don't know how long we sat there, him crying and me holding him, but eventually something caught our attention; a distant rumbling noise. Almost like thunder, but not quite. It was too close; like it was coming from across the street. Curiousity got the better of us as we staggered numbly over to the window, peeking through the shades to investigate.

Ash's red, tear-stung eyes widened in unison with mine. Neither of us were expecting what we saw just outside.

In Pallet Town, all of hell had come loose. Across the street a house was on fire, illuminating the night along with a dozen other undoubtedly accompanying it, shining orange and crimson light up and down the street like an enraged spotlight. In the wreckage, I could see a person stumbling out of the flames before a Magmar leaped up and grabbed him, claws digging into him, breathing flames down his neck a split second before they disappeared into the burning debris. Two police cars roared down the street, sirens wailing and lights flashing, nearly mowing down a Machoke as it grabbed a person, locked him in a headlock, and brought him down like a wrestler, pounding the person's head into the pavement. A Marowak mindlessly smashed in a mailbox with its bone as a Voltord bounded into a yard and exploded, sending a plume of fire dirt up into the air that rained back down to the ground like red and brown snow. Burrowing pokemon tunneled beneath the sidewalk, splitting the pavement and causing a huge row of displaced dirt and cement to rise up above the ground. A Primeape howled a challenge while beating its chest before taking off in an enraged frenzy, running down a person unfortunate enough to have looked the Pig Monkey pokemon in the eye. Bird pokemon swarmed in the distance, dive-bombing everything and anything below them, the largest ones picking up people and debris to a considerable height before dropping them back to the ground, taking out whatever they landed on. An apartment complex poking up between the flames of the burning house was surrounded by a black swarm of bug pokemon, windows shattering as people and airborne insects plowed through them.

Our quiet residential community had transformed into a war zone.

"What...the hell..." I shook my head, rubbing my eyes to assure myself I wasn't seeing things. I looked to Ash for help, who stared blankly at me. Neither of us had any idea of what was happening.

We did, however, have an idea of what we were going to do: _get the hell out of town._

Ash wiped his eyes once for good measure, momentarily numbing himself of the grief of what he'd done. There would be time to grieve later; right now, he just had to get his best friend out of this place safely. "Professor Oak," he said suddenly, turning around to get things ready. "We've got to get to Professor Oak. Get dressed and we'll get out of here."

I nodded, pausing briefly to examine my stomach. The nightgown was torn and clearly exposed my stomach, which was scratched and raw from the damage inflicted by Pikachu. It hurt like a bitch and burned something awful, but apart from two nicks where red dribbled out, it didn't break the skin; just tore at it and turned my belly into one giant rug burn. I went over to the stairs in a hurry, stepping past Pikachu's motionless body while careful to step past the blood pooling out beneath him. I felt so bad for him....I know Ash didn't have a choice, but...it was _Pikachu. _We both loved him, like he loved us...at least, _before _he raging psychopath on us. I wanted to stop, feel his pulse to at least know he was alive, but I didn't dare touch him; pikachu are living conduits of electricity, and touching him could electrocute me, even if he was...d...that one word. I don't dare say it. I just prayed to Arceus that he was okay and raced up the stairs, headed for my room.

I froze when there was a pounding coming from the door. I heard a muffled screech as another pound resonated from the door, as if something heavy was being thrown against it in an effort to break it down. A fuzzy buneary ear exploded through the middle of the door, punching a block of wood past me that bounced off the railing. The ear withdrew as Buneary stuck her head down to look at me, her beady eyes rolling about in her sockets as she looked at me, baring her teeth and snarling. The pounding on the door intensified, now that they knew I was there, and I could make out the distinguished(if not frenzied) cries of the pokemon on my team. _Piplup, Buneary, Quilava, Ambipom, Pachirisu, Togekiss...oh Arceus, not them, too!_

I gaped in horrible realization for a moment before flames burst out of the hole in the door, causing me to scream and rush back downstairs to avoid the fire that poured through the hallway, leaping over Pikachu's body. Clothing be damned; my pokemon were insane!

Ash had picked up the table leg from before and was about to ask what was wrong when I heard the door splinter and smash down, pieces of debris bouncing down the stairs, splashing and sizzling in the pool of blood near the bottom. That and my terrified expression was enough to convince him that I was perfectly fine going out in a torn nightgown. We dashed to the door, threw it open, and rushed out into the night.

It was nearly 10 PM, but it was as bright as day outside. Flames from burning houses down the road illuminated the entire neighborhood, the screams of people and pokemon that inhabited it drowning out the roar of the fire. Sirens could be heard in the distance, accompanied by the popping of gunshots. The entire town had gone to hell in a handbasket.

Ash threw open the door to his truck and started the engine as I jumped into the passenger seat. He twisted his head around as he quickly backed out of the driveway, shifted gears, and tore off down the road. He didn't even bother with the speed limit, and I didn't protest, though I gripped the door handle a bit tighter. 50 down a subdivision road tends to make me a little nervous. It didn't help that the entire neighborhood all around us was in total chaos; trainers frantically commanding their pokemon to stop as they tore away at them, innocent civilians waking up to find a pokemon breaking into their house trying to kill them, entire rows of houses bursting into flames... "What's going on?" I asked, voice slightly detached as we flew down the road. "Why are the pokemon attacking people?"

Ash opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and shook his head, never taking his eyes off the road. Neither of us knew what was going on.

* * *

_Ash's POV_

* * *

I found it hard to focus on the road in front of us as we drove. My mind kept drifting back to the moment Pikachu leaped and I swung my weapon, colliding it with his skull, sending him bouncing across the room...I watched him bleed out, the table leg stained red where it met with his head-

_No! _I screamed to myself, shaking my head to clear it. _Don't think about that. Don't you DARE think about it. Don't think about how your best friend could be dead by your hand. Don't imagine his corpse laying on the base of the steps. Don't think about it. Just. Don't. Think. About it. Focus on Dawn; that's right, Dawn. Focus on her. She's your best friend. Now that Pikachu's gone, she's your b--NO!! No, she's your best friend. Leave it at that. She's your best friend, and there's danger all around. It's just like before, on your old journeys; there's danger all around you, and you have to keep her safe. She has to be alright. She HAS to be. I MUST keep her safe. She means the world to me. I need her. She's all I've got left anymore. She's all I have..._

My eyes stung with tears before I felt something warm on my shoulder; Dawn's hand, put there to comfort me, having read my troubled expression and watery eyes. The look on her face was plastered with worry, tinged with a small amount of shock...she was scared, too. Just like I was. But I had to be strong; I needed to be, for her. For both of us. I reached one hand off the steering wheel to clasp around her hand, giving it a squeeze. She didn't hesitate to squeeze in return. _I've got to be strong...for Dawn. I'll be strong for Dawn. I'll be strong._

It was only a short drive to Professor Oak's Lab, and I nearly plowed head-long into the side of the building; perhaps I should have slowed down a bit sooner. It didn't matter; I didn't bother to turn the engine off and opened the door on my side. Dawn went to follow suit, but I kept a firm grip on her hand, lightly pulling her back inside. "Stay here," I ordered her, squeezing her hand to emphasize. "I'll be _right back, _alright? Stay here. If any pokemon so much as breathes in your direction, take off, and I'll meet up later."

Dawn shook her head adamantly. "I'm not leaving you for de-"

"Dawn, _please. _Just do this. For me."

My words struck home, making Dawn hesitate, briefly ponder my request, and surrender, easing back into her seat. "...please be careful."

I nodded and let go of her hand, closing the truck door behind me as I jogged up to the door to the professor's lab, the top floor of which was his living quarters. I knocked on the door hard, yelling his name. No answer. I tried again, then waited for a reply. Still nothing. I lowered my shoulder and rammed the door, bouncing back slightly, my shoulder hurting like hell. I stepped back and kicked the door, only to receive a similar result, except my foot. Nothing; it looked like the professor pokemon-proofed his doors. That was good, I supposed; if the pokemon couldn't break into his house, then there was no way they could-

A sharp, pain-filled scream consumed my senses. My heart nearly dropped to my feet; _Alakazam. Fuck! _I yelled "Professor Oak!" and ran around to the other side of the house, looking for a way inside. The second floor window was on; probably his room. Looking around briefly, I decided to try the gutter, running up to it to get a start and leaping up, hands locking around it with the sides of my shoes pressing into the sides. I stuck, and it didn't budge; looks like the professor pokemon-proofed his gutters, too. With all the pidgeotto around these parts, he was probably worried that the plump birds would rip the gutter off his house. Oh well. It made my job easier, anyway. Shoes squeezing the sides to prevent me from slipping, I pulled myself up the metal column and began my ascent.

Another scream came from the house, definitely from the upstairs window I was headed for. "Hang on, Professor!" I yelled, making a quick reach over to the windowsile and catching, pulling myself up to see...and froze.

Professor Oak's room was a disaster. Everything inside was torn out, flipped over, or thrown asunder, several meter-long gashs dug into the walls and even the ceiling. The door was nonexistent, undoubtedly broken down. My attention focused on Professor Oak in the center of the room, who was being held up by the throat, an enraged Alakazam holding him up into the air, feet dangling down off the ground by a foot. The pokemon's spoons hovered in the air by its side; it flicked his head to the side slightly, and one of its spoons lanced through the air and raked across the professor's chest, splattering the nearby wall with blood. No way those spoons could do that naturally; judging by the purple-blue trail they left behind them, I'd say Alakazam was using Psycho Cut. _And he's unleashing them on the professor, point-blank._

Another flick of the head signaled the other spoon to slash the professor's chest, his scream stacking on top of another as the other spoon floated back and slashed him again, now dripping with red. The professor's lab coat was ripped and stained from the cuts, his glasses missing entirely, graying hair speckled with red. Two more slashes, and the professor continued to scream. "Please, stop!" he screamed, pain reaching unbearable limits. "Alakazam! Stop this madness--it's me! Professor Oak! I-I raised you since you were an Abr--aaaaaagggghh!!" Another Psycho Cut stopped the man's begging with another scream, followed by hysterical sobbing and gasps. "P-please...Alakazam...w-why are you doing this? Wh-what....how could I have angered you so?"

The Alakazam slowly drew the professor in, faces inches apart, staring into the man's eyes with its own bloodshot ones within its skull, brimming with flames of malice and insanity. I couldn't hear anything, nor did I see Alakazam's mouth move; he must have responded telepathically, however, the answer apparently not being very good...or maybe it was just as insane as he was. The professor shook his head weakly, sobbing slight "no"s that pained me with every gasp he took...until Alakazam raised his free hand. His three fingers waved slightly, glowing a blue hue, and I realized the pokemon was unleashing a Psychic attack directly into Professor Oak's face.

The older man pressed his hands to his ears and screamed again, louder than before, crying out in pain indescribable pain. I had no idea what was happening to this poor soul before me, eyes widening with an ever increasing pounding of my heart, suddenly wanting to add as much distance between me and that pokemon as possible. As confused and shocked as I was, I somehow held a sense of expectancy at what was about to happen, and this intuition frightened me more than the actual horror of the man's plight itself. The professor began to thrash his limbs as an invisible yet highly apparent affliction began to take full effect upon him and flung his head upwards, stretched his eyes wide open and screamed with all his remaining breath in agonizing torment until the blood vessels of his eyes burst and every vein along his neck and face punched through his skin under intense pressure. In an instant of silence in his screaming, there was a brief pause before his head forcibly erupted into a fountain of blood, shooting pieces of skull and brain matter that ricocheted off every wall and available surface like shrapnel, red competely coating the window I was staring through and obscured my vision of the room's interior.

Right before my eyes, Professor Oak's head _exploded._

I couldn't think; couldn't move, couldn't feel, couldn't _breathe. _The man that I looked up to, there from the beginning, serving as a father to me more than my own father ever could have: dead, right before my eyes. Killed by the very pokemon the man trusted the most; the one he'd raised from nothing more than a feeble Abra. The man I loved like a father...dead. Right in front of me. Gone forever.

I felt a burning sensation come from my hands as I slid down the gutter, skin squeaking violently as came down. I suddenly dropped down when I heard a sharp smashing come from the window I'd been at, raising my arms over my head as bloodied glass rained down on me. I saw a black shape go flying out the window, sailing through the air and landing in the grass a dozen meters away. I had to guess it was the professor's headless body. I didn't look to investigate; I turned on my heel and ran like hell back to the truck, where Dawn was waiting.

I threw the door open and flopped into the driver's seat, slamming the door. Good thing I'd kept the engine on; I didn't want to stay here any longer than I had to.

"Where's the professor?" Dawn asked, eyes widening when she saw my expression; angst-filled, distant expression.

I cut off her next comment by throwing the truck into reverse, rocketed back, and took off down the road with no destination in mind. I had no idea where I was going, or what we'd do when we got there; I just drove, taking off down the road and putting as much distance between us and Pallet Town as I could. I didn't think anything; my mind was numb. I couldn't believe what I'd seen. Professor Oak...my father-figure since childhood...how? How could Alakazam, or all people, have done that? Murdered the man that raised him, raising me alongside my mother as well...why? Why did it have to be this way? How did it come to this?

The truck continued down the road in silence, picking up the pace as we entered the highway. Abandoned cars were everywhere, redened spots on the road presumably where people had met their end as well. I didn't turn my head to look at them. Bird pokemon like fearows and pidgeottos feigned dive-bombs at the few cars on the road along with us, trying to distract the drivers, though none of them dared to make contact with them; we were moving too fast, and they didn't want a broken neck. _Then what _do _they want? _I found myself asking, eyes brimming over with hot tears of grief at the whole situation. Dawn again reached over and took my hand, but said nothing; she, like I, was confounded at the hopelessness of our confusing predicament. _Why are the pokemon killing people? What did we ever do to them? Why have our friends turned on us? What did we do to deserve this? _I looked into the rear-view mirror, blinking my eyes to see through the tears; the further we got from Pallet Town, the more defined the red haze above the city became. Smoke and flames billowed up past the horizon, igniting the night sky and dying it a bloody red. _Why have the pokemon betrayed us?_

Pallet Town behind us provided no answer.

My truck continued forward into the night with its grief-struck and confused passengers, driving on into the dark in hopes of some sort of solace.

Behind us, the world of man turned upside down.

* * *

_**AN**_

And there you have it. The beginning of pokepocalypse. Hope you're enjoying yourselves out there; I sure know I am. Do you have _any _idea how fun it is to write about a guy's head exploding?? I feel so alive!! 8D Unlike Professor Oak, I'm sure.

_Oak: _Hardy har har. Asshole...

_*makes Oak's head explode again*_

_Oak: _*head explodes* DAMN IT!!

*lol* Anyway, review for me and tell me how it's coming along. Obviously, this is one of the _longer _chapters; not all the others are going to freaking double the story's word count. O_o' I might kick the story into M rating after this, so just be on your toes. Anyone got any scenes they'd like me to include in the next chapter? By all means, PM me, and I'll see what I can do. I love pokepocalypse~!

Happy pokepocalypse, everyone~!


	4. Highway To Hell

_**Highway To Hell**_

* * *

_"This is Kanto News bringing you a live report down at the scene rapidly building in Cerulean City. There have been hundreds of reports pouring in about unprovoked pokemon attacks, where pokemon once thought to be perfectly domesticated and trained suddenly turned and have now gone rampant, terrorizing the streets and wreaking havoc on the people they once called trainers. Behind me you can see the full extent of the chaos; the Cerulean Gym has been nearly completely destroyed, the surrounding residential community set ablaze by the rampaging pokemon loose in the city. Local Gym Leader Misty has been declared missing, and search efforts to locate her and the numerous other reported missing persons are underway. Authorities say that the first pokemon attack was reported at 8:35 tonight, which was quickly followed up by a dozen more nearly identical reports from this neighborhood alone until the National Pokemon Defense Force suddenly found themselves overwhelmed with what nearly everyone agrees to be unnatural, unprovoked acts of hostilities pouring in from every major settlement all over Kanto, stretching in from neighboring regions as well. Authorities are not sure as to what caused this sudden outbreak of aggression, though some speculate it may have something to do with the virus traveling around the area, causing a chemical imbalance in the brain that drove the pokemon to their current frenzied state. Trainers are told by no means to try to apprehend or talk sense into their pokemon, as this only leads to more violence and bloodshed. The pokemon have somehow gained the ability to resist recall attempts by their pokeballs, though those still inside their balls are unaffected; trainers are to leave any pokemon in their balls and to keep them in their PCs until further notice. The NPDF has just declared a state of national emergency, and evacuation efforts are currently underway-"_

_The ground suddenly rumbles, nearly knocking the anchor woman off her feet. "What the hell-?" The camera turns to the right, where smoke from Nugget Bridge to the north has started to add up, clouding the already choked sky with more artificial clouds. "We just experienced some kind of tremor here, presumably coming from Nugget Bridge, which-"_

_Suddenly an explosion rocks the area, the resulting shaking and quakes enough to knock the camera out of the cameraman's hands, sending it to the ground. The camera is quickly picked back up and pointed back towards the bridge, drifting left to Cerulean Cave just to the west, where fire and smoldering debris were raining down from the sky, a huge chunk of the cave blown out of the top of the subterranean complex. Among the numerous pieces of rock and black specks against the night sky, one speck sat stationary, suspended in the air among the falling rocks as though completely unaffected by gravity. _

_The anchorwoman says something incoherent, the camera locked on the speck hovering in the air. "Arceus...Ty, are you getting this?"_

_Suddenly the speck appeared to tremble, rapidly growing in size and picking up detail as it rocketed towards the camera crew at incredible speeds, several cries of people below coming distantly through the chaos surrounding. There was now a purple blur headed straight towards them..._

_The the anchorwoman shrieked, the cameraman frozen on the spot. "OHMYARCE-"_

_The screen was consumed by static, the random sporadic image coming through to show shades of purple and lavender, the woman's screams occasionally making it past the glitchy, artificial white noise pouring through the camera as the chaos ensured. There was a long break of static before the camera finally got a better signal, the world tilted on its side since the device was on the ground. No screams were heard; only the distant chaos and the crackling of fire could be heard. One shoe was poking out on the edge of the screen, stained red._

_The camera shuddered slightly, a purple paw stomping on the ground an inch away from the camera lens. The image shook as the recording device was slowly lifted into the air, the lens tracing the shape of the purple felinoid retrieving the device, momentarily showing the body of the woman from before sprawled out on the ground, limbs splayed out at grotesque, unnatural angles. The camera was leveled with the pokemon's purple face, its sunken, bloodshot eyes tearing into the device's lens from deep within its skull, narrowing with the utmost hate and animosity, intended to strike fear into whoever was looking through said device. A tail swayed behind the pokemon's head; a three-fingered hand raised to the camera, the pokemon's frenzied eyes glowing blue as its power was channeled through-_

_The screen burst into static, the signal lost. The screen declaring they were experiencing "Technical Difficulties" quickly followed._

* * *

_Dawn's POV_

* * *

The trip down Highway 2 felt like the longest car ride I've ever been on.

Ash kept pace with the 3 other cars that managed to make it this far. There were 5 of us, but two others made a quick turn down one of the off-ramps to head towards Viridian, probably to pick up friends or loved ones or checking to see if the city fared any better than Pallet. We guessed not; the flames bleeding light into the sky and belching smoke to choke out the stars were even more intense than what we saw leaving Pallet, hence why we didn't turn along with them. Viridian was dead; even their radio signal was completely silent. If anyone was alive, it wouldn't be for very long. We just had to keep moving.

The bird pokemon hovering outside of Viridian City were especially tenacious; we learned first-hand that the pidgeot and fearow weren't quite as afraid to go suicide-bomber in an attempt to take us to hell with them. We watched a fearow swoop in and smash its head through the windshield of the red van across the lane from us, who hadn't been expecting the pokemon to go kamikaze, causing the car to swerve sharply to the left, smash into the median, and erupt into a flaming, twisted heap of metal, plastic, and flesh. The blue car we were paired with was the next to go; an ingenuitive pidgeot landed on top of the car hard, pounding in the roof a bit, digging its claws into the vehicle's trunk and attempting to take off with it, which it managed to do, with the assistance of a skarmory. The car was hefted into the air at least 40 feet before they dropped it onto the highway, where it rolled violently, tore up pieces of the road, and sat smoldering in the road while spearow swooped in to kill off those who made it. Ash had to do a lot of dodging and weaving, but eventually the bird pokemon grew bored of pursuing us and went back to pick off the survivors of Viridian City trying to make it on foot.

I don't think I've ever been so scared of driving in my entire life.

The silence was tense, but unbreakable. Ash didn't look like he was about to say anything, eyes locked on the road ahead of us while occasionally glancing over at the forest to our right, watching for something to spring out and try to make us crash. His eyes were hollow and glazed over; a combination of grief and fatigue of staying awake up till the wee hours of dawn on the road was enough to make me a bit weary as well, though he had the brunt of it. I can't imagine what he must have been feeling. To think he had to kill Pikachu with his own hand...then, to watch Professor Oak be killed...unspeakable. I felt so terrible for him, but I couldn't come up with anything to say. I was still overwhelmed with the suddenness and the confusion of it all; pokemon everywhere just randomly snapping and killing off everyone they could come across for no reason...why? Why are they doing this? What made them do this? What do they want from us that they want to kill us for? I could ask myself the same questions for days, but no answers would come. It was frustrating, but I just had to accept that they were doing what they were doing for a reason I wasn't aware of and leave it at that. There was simply no way for me to find out at this point. All the radio stations were completely scrambled...either they weren't working, were re-purposed by people trying to call for help and tell the story themselves, or told the same story over and over: pokemon going crazy. Nobody knows what's happening. People dying. Chaos. No one knows what caused it. Nobody knows what they want.

No one knows _anything._

Frustrated, I eventually turned off the radio. Ash flicked a brief glance at me, but didn't object, the only noise accompanying us being the humming of the ford we sat in as it cruised along, headed for...Pewter, I guess. It was the only other city this way. I wanted to ask, but I couldn't. The words refused to come.

I still couldn't believe this was happening. There was no way this could be really happening--all of the pokemon everywhere, going crazy? Killing everyone? It sounded like the half-ass plot people would slap into a video game so they could make millions off of a pokemon slayer to go along with the zombiepocalypse games out there. There was no way this was real. Nobody would ever believe this if we told them what was happening. They'd laugh, give us funny looks, call the cops to haul us off to the insane asylum...no, this wasn't possible. This didn't just happen for no reason. In a lot of ways, I wondered if I was dreaming; that Ash and I had fallen asleep together on the couch in the living room, and that I was just having a nightmare based off of the scary movie I knew we shouldn't have watched. Then I'd wake up, tell it to Ash, then we'd have a jolly good laugh about it, tease each other a bit, then go on with our lives, wishing Pikachu the best as he tried to rest off the bug he had. This was all just a dream...

_The bug. _The logical half of my mind made the connection relatively quickly as the rest of me tried to deny this was real. _Pikachu had the bug. Then, Pikachu went crazy for seemingly no reason. This doesn't happen often. Then again, neither does that bug. The one time he gets sick, and he goes crazy. The one time my team gets headaches, and they try to kill me. The one time there's an outbreak of illness, and all of hell breaks loose. Coincidence? It would have to be one hell of one. I don't think so. This has to have something to do with that bug. What other explanation is there? Why else would the pokemon of Kanto suddenly go homicidal and start killing everyone? It's the only thing that could make sense of all this. It's the only explanation. Why else would Pikachu betray us like that? Pikachu...our Pikachu...little Pika..._

I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut to counter the stinging of tears. I had to stay focused. I couldn't think about that right now.

Speaking of _"that," _I looked down to my stomach, which had stopped burning like it had before, though by no means did it feel particularly good. The lines left by Pikachu's claws were puffing out of my skin slightly, outlined by angry red that refused to fade even after the hours that had passed. The two spots where the skin had broken left little splotches of dried blood present, having scabbed up over time. It stung to bend over slightly, but I would live. I was just pleased that it hadn't been worse, and that Pikachu hadn't decided to file his nails that day. My nightgown was completely ruined; there was a hole in the silky pink fabric wide enough to crawl through, exposing my aggravated stomach lined by pale, tender skin untouched by Pikachu's rampage. My legs and arms were a bit chilly, as well as my partially-exposed back, but I could live with that for now. At least I'd had the sense to keep my bra on underneath, or I could be a lot more miserable right now.

Silence prevailed. Thick, unbearable, choking silence. Silence...silence wasn't Ash's thing. The two words had nothing to do with one another, unless the phrase "is not synonymous with" was stuck between them, but here he was, about as talkative as an empty grave. Silence didn't suit Ash...even though there were many times in my knowing him when I prayed to Arceus that he'd lose his voice, superglue his mouth closed..._anything _to keep his big mouth shut! But not tonight. Tonight, Ash was deathly silent...and it was killing me. Perhaps literally. After what happened with Pikachu, I needed to hear his voice, even if it was in the form of our mindless bickering. To my companion and friend I said softly in a small voice, "Ash?"

No reply. Ash stared straight ahead, eyes locked on the road, fists clenched around the steering wheel as though it might suddenly try to escape his grasp. _Silence..._not a good sign. Especially not with Ash.

"...Ash?"

"...I really don't wanna talk right now, Dawn," Ash replied solemnly, his tone barely audible over the delicate hum of the truck's engine, eyes never looking away from the highway extending in front of us. He spoke briskly and quickly, as though wanting to get the whole thing out before his grief-struck mind could make him stop or change his mind, or lose his nerve. I could tell he didn't want to be crude to me, but he meant what he said; he didn't want to talk.

Either intentionally or unintentionally, refusing to talk denied me the only outlet for comfort I could come up with, the same applying to him as well. That was one of the things about Ash that he had a problem with; he was always so willing to take up the challenge and accept the burden so no one else had to, even if he was unable to bear the weight himself. He often did so by closing doors he didn't realize he had a say over or had a choice to leave open, preventing his friends and loved ones from coming in to help him...or to get help from him.

My expression drooped in defeat. I could see right away before I even started journeying with him for long that Ash was the kind of guy who would bottle up his emotions, keeping his guilt and anxieties under lock and key in an effort to maintain the "tough guy" appearance and assure his friends that he was okay. It was that kind of thinking that got him and us into a lot of trouble on our journey together, but besides that, I knew first-hand what such a thing would do to him; I'd had problems that I had kept silent to everyone as well, keeping things beneath the surface until it boiled over and I literally couldn't take it anymore. I'd had my share of emotional breakdowns due to pent-up anger and sorrow and frustration, especially after our group disbanded 9 years ago, and I knew what that sort of thing could do to him. I didn't want him to hurt anymore. He was treading dangerous waters, and we had enough to deal with without him having to fight on a second front. So, I persisted. "Ash..."

_"I don't wanna talk," _he insisted, not in a yell, but adamantly enough to try to persuade me to stop.

I visibly winced, my hand halting from where it had been reaching to his shoulder before dropping lifelessly to the divider between us, fingers pale from the chill of the truck's ever-persistant AC; it could go "high," "medium," "low," "barely there," but there was no "off," much to his dismay in the winter, undoubtedly. It hurt to be turned away in such a tender moment; here I was, already struggling to maintain some kind of composure, and he was batting away my hand as I tried to extend it to him. It stung. I know he didn't mean it like that, but it still stung...

Ash pinched his eyes closed for a moment, forcing his fists to relax on the steering wheel. After a little while, one of his hands released the wheel and drifted to the divider, placing his hand on top of mine, giving me an apologetic look out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't meant to hurt me. "...I'm sorry."

I smiled weakly, turning my hand over and intertwining my fingers with his, giving him a reassuring squeeze...reassuring for who, though; him or me? I can't say for sure. I just know that I was hurting and scared, he was hurting and scared, and that the warmth between our hands felt good. He didn't seem to mind at all that one hand was being occupied by me, and only proceeded to return the squeeze I gave him, thumb rubbing over my fingers soothingly. I sat further back into the passenger's seat, closed my eyes, and relaxed for the first time in hours. It felt like an eternity had passed since we had last embraced, watching that damn Spiritomb movie...it felt like a lifetime ago that we had lived out our daily lives as best friends. Had it really only been just a few short hours that we'd been normal people living normal lives? Maybe Dialga or Celebi was fucking with time or something....

Naturally, the one time that I wanted life to slow down and drag on like it had been, things started happening.

Ash had a faint smile on his lips, easing back into his seat like I had, just enjoying the sensation of holding my hand. His eyes flicked to the right side of the road, then frowned, turning ever so slightly as he eased down on the breaks a bit.

I felt the slight deceleration and opened my eyes. "What is it?"

Ash nodded towards a car on the side of the road, which I squinted at to examine a bit. It wasn't at all odd to find wrecked cars on the side of the road, as we'd seen plenty of what the bird pokemon would do to people they found driving, but this one was different. The red and blue flashing lights indicated that it was a police car, and as we approached, the headlights of Ash's truck painting out its features, we could find no source of external damage that could have caused the officer driving it to crash or veer off the road, however the situation warranted. "Police car," he observed, picking out the PNDF symbol painted on the side of its open door. "Let's check it out. Maybe they had supplies."

I wasn't particularly fond of the idea of stopping now on the edge of Viridian Forest, but I didn't protest. We did have a need for supplies at the moment, and whoever left their car here probably didn't need it right now; being a police car, maybe it had weapons. Besides, arguing with Ash was like arguing with the truck we were sitting in: completely pointless.

Ash pulled up alongside the police car, cutting the engine to avoid attracting any wild pokemon to the noise. It was to my right, so I had a better view of it. From where I sat, I couldn't see any damage to any part of the police car; the blue and red lights caused a slightly-disorientating strobe-effect in the dark scenery around it, but that was all that illuminated the area, since the angry red glow on the horizon wasn't nearly enough to provide any sort of efficient light. The driver was nowhere to be found, and apart from the open door, there was no sign of a fight or anything. It looked like they just up and left their car. But then where would they go? Up the road, or into the forest? Either way was suicide; if the pokemon in Viridian Forest were anywhere near as rabid as the pokemon in Pallet, then that person probably walked off to their grave.

That never stopped Ash, though. "Stay here," he ordered, opening his door.

Before he could read me the Riot Act, though, I tugged on his hand. "I'm not going anywhere without you. We either do this together, or not at all."

Ash opened his mouth to protest, but decided against it. He knew as well as I did that I was as stubborn as he was, as impossible as that sounded. "...just stay close."

I nodded, opening the door, then hurried off to the other side to be by him again. I was planning on staying close; in fact, I had every reason to stay directly at his side the entire time.

We both carefully made our way over to the car, eyes probing the foliage around us as the police lights highlighted it systematically in blue and red. Ash looked around a bit for any sign of the driver while I poked my head into the interior of the car to see if I could find anything. The outside was flawless, but the inside had a few scratches and rips here and there, indicating maybe a pokemon had gotten inside at one point. On closer observation I saw that the window to the passenger's seat was smashed open, probably where said pokemon made its escape...or untimely exit with a little urging from the driver. I could see the gas gauge's needle running parallel with the dashboard, indicating that it was out of gas, hence why the person would have been inclined to leave. The inboard radio was broken, the walkie-talkie thing attached to the dashboard broken off, the wire severed. There were no weapons present, although there were a pair of spent clips to a pistol I guess the person discarded while they fired. _Fired...at what? They were shooting pokemon? _I was originally appalled by the concept, but after briefly recalling the frenzied behavior of the pokemon on my team as they tried to kill me, I didn't have any problems with it. It was either us or them, and I chose us, I guess. Too bad there weren't any spare weapons, though...the passenger seat had a foot-long flashlight under it, which could double as a melee weapon in a pinch, but...I don't know about anyone else, but I'd prefer to fight off a rabid pokemon _before _they were up in my face and close enough to reach out and touch. Well, something was something, I guess. Beats nothing at all.

Finding nothing but the flashlight, I turned it on and beamed it into Ash's eyes when he turned to face me. "Found a flashlight," I informed him.

Squinting, he reached over and pointed it out of his eyes, blinking slightly. "Yeah, I can see that, but...where's the dri-"

_Rustle._

Ash and I snapped over to look at the source of the noise as I painted the general vicinity with the flashlight's beam, light flickering about unevenly as my hand shook. Silence and stillness was all that answered us as we stared, not daring to take so much as a breath for fear of giving away our position. I don't know about Ash, but I _know _I heard something. The leaves were still in the bushes across from us, swaying ever so delicately to some weak, unheard tune, rubbing against one another as if in anticipation of what was to come...I swallowed, flicking a glance at Ash. Maybe we didn't hear anything after a-

_"Driiiiiill!!"_

Ash and I gave a cry and ducked down to avoid the yellow blur that shot over our heads, giving a loud buzzing noise as it did so. Following it as it flew, I made out the shape of two lance-like arms, a pair of transparent wings and twig-like legs, a large stinger on the end of its abdomen...its red compound eyes appeared burnt and shriveled, burrowing down into the pokemon's skull between its two black antennae...only one pokemon that could look like that. As if confirming what I thought it was, the beedrill buzzed an enraged challenge, holding its spike-arms out in front of it as it swooped in at us for a second try, stabbing the air with its throbbing stinger. I sidestepped quickly as Ash had to throw himself to the cool grass below, the beedrill buzzing in anger as it swooped by and collided with the car's open door, which gave a metallic groan as the door was shoved past it's hinges and snapped off, hitting the ground heavily and slamming down to the ground as the beedrill fluttered into the air, shaking its head.

Ash gave me a push towards the truck, standing between me and the beedrill protectively. "Get in the truck!"

No needing to be told twice, I turned to hurry back to our vehicle, only to realize that there was _another _beedrill that crawled on the truck's roof, buzzing in anger when it saw me. I gave a cry as it took to the air and charged in for me, rushing out of the way as it swooped by, trying to gore me. Ash swung the table leg he'd kept from the house and smashed the beedrill that was facing him in the face with it, knocking it back as a _third _beedrill rushed in to take its stunned companion's place, slicing the air past Ash's head, forcing him back a step.

The beedrill facing me turned and snapped back towards me, stopping when I moved to dodge it and initiated the _real _charge, tackling me to the ground. I screamed and grabbed the beedrill's scrawny arms as it tried to drive its blades into my chest, trying to hold it down so its stinger would continue stabbing the ground just between my legs instead of me. Despite how tiny those buggers' limbs may seem, I could barely hold it away as it aimed its built-in weapons at my head, satanic eyes drilling me through in anticipation.

Ash cried "Dawn!" and moved to help, but the beedrill from before intercepted him, stopping him in his tracks. He stepped back to find that the other beedrill had wrapped its arms around him in a bear hug, trying to stab him with its stinger and stop squirming while the other tried to stab him with its arms, halting mid-strike several times for fear of striking its comrade. Not the _best _teamwork, but it was enough to keep him occupied.

So, for the second time in roughly 6 hours, I found myself pinned to the ground, face an inch away from death, a rabid pokemon on top of me trying to tear my throat out in its frenzied rage, staring into a pair of sunken, blazing eyes. Pikachu's eyes had been frightening enough--I had seen what his eyes used to be, and the new bloodshot, hollow ones were enough to chill my blood--but the ones I now found myself staring into were...horrible. Each of the pokemon's individual reflective sight plates covering its eyes were shrivled and darkened, color resembling the deep red of congealed blood and completely devoid of shine. Like the others before, the pokemon's compound eye structures were burrowed into the pokemon's skull as though they'd literally drilled their way into its flesh, reaching such a depth that it seemed like they were touching the pokemon's brain. If they went in any further, they'd come right out through the back of its head! Despite the fact that I saw absolutely nothing in its eyes that I could relate to--not even the structure of the eyes themselves--I could clearly identify the flames and hate that stared back at me with such intensity that it threatened to scald the flesh on my face. I could feel the pokemon gaining strength as it realize mine was dwindling, its powerful mandibles snapping and arranging into what I had to assume was a smile, the blades of its arms nearing my face was every passing moment. The poison-filled weapons grew closer, threatening to prick my skin...closer...closer...I could practically see the venom dripping off the end in the pokemon's excitement...

I screamed.

The beedrill buzzed a harsh laugh at my plight, moving in to finally stab me...it abruptly stopped, buzzing wings silencing as reality dawned on it, looking up...and it realized, along with I, that it was staring down the barrel of a gun.

_Bang. _

I screamed again, this time in surprise rather than terror, feeling hot blood splash on my face and dampen my torn nightgown. The beedrill's head was blown in half from the sheer force of the metal slug that smashed through its skull, splintering its exoskeleton and splashing its brains into the air. The sides of its head, holding barely enough flesh to hold the antennae in place, flopped limply as the beedrill's body flopped limply down on top of me, giving me a sickening view as blood poured onto my chest from the hole in its neck, which I could stare down to see the contents of its throat. Instantly I shoved the body off me in abhorrence, having enough time to wipe frantically at the gore on my chest before the gun went off again, this time striking the beedrill that was trying to skewer Ash. The beedrill gave a pained buzz as a hole appeared in its back, turning to face the source of the attack before two more holes appeared in its chest. The beedrill hit the ground, twitching violently as the other beedrill looked up in surprise. It had enough time to let out one more buzz before its head exploded as well, joining its friends on the ground.

Ash let out a noise of disgust as he wiped bits of beedrill skull off the back of his head, flicking pieces of brain out of his hair. I let out a whimper at the warm blood covering my chest, hopelessly trying to wipe it away. A white-gloved hand reached out for me, and I took it, the owner yanking me up off the ground. "Thanks," I managed to mutter, still wiping vainly away the blood.

The woman nodded crisply, popping the magazine out of her handgun and replacing it with one in her pocket, snapping the safeties back off and priming the weapon with mechanical efficiency. The woman appeared to be one of the many Officer Jenny's found throughout the world, staying true to her image of being one of innumeral identical Jenny sisters. Her blue security uniform was slightly dirty and worn, several scratches poking through to reveal minor cuts across her body. The star on her officer's cap suggested that she was originally posted in Viridian City.

Ash flicked a few more pieces of beedrill skull off of himself and was about to say something when a flurry of more yellow pokemon burst out of the bushes, a loud buzzing filling the air. Ash's eyes widened and yelled "Run!" as he turned to the truck to get inside-

Before Ash ever took the first step towards it, the Jenny's pistol snapped up and discharged, kicking against her palm as it fired numerous rounds into the oncoming swarm. The lead beedrill took a trio of rounds to the chest, falling as Jenny turned her attention to another beedrill that pointed at her in challenge, exploding its head in response. "Move!" she barked, continuing to fire, holding her ground despite the oncoming wave of beedrill. Two more of the bug pokemon fell, and she didn't even flinch. "Into the vehicle! _Now!"_

We didn't need to be told twice; Ash and I ran full-tilt back to the truck, assuming that it was what she had been talking about, since her car was out of gas. Ash dove into the driver's seat, revving the engine harshly as I went into the passenger's seat and slipped into the back. Before I had even finished moving, Ash turned the steering wheel and floored the gas, jolting the truck forward.

Officer Jenny stood her ground, despite the odds piled against her. She fired repeatedly and without hesitation, pumping out fast, controlled bursts into the closest beedrillspresent. Three shots; two fell, one minus its head. Three more shots, and one screamed as it came to the ground, the force of the slugs tearing its abdomen off. Despite the power of her 12mm pistol and the precision of her strikes, there were simply too many beedrill for one woman to take out at once. Six, ten, fifteen, twenty two...the numbers kept adding up as the insects kept pouring out of the bushes. _Dammit,_ she thought, forced to take her first step back as she reloaded as fast as she could. _Looks like the whole hive is here..._She pistol-whipped a beedrill in the face, pumping two shots into the bug that came in to take its place, now backpedalling freely and firing as fast as the weapon in her hand would cycle bullets into the chamber. She emptied what remained of her clip into one particularly feisty beedrill as another smartly nosed in from the side. Officer Jenny just smiled dryly, not bothering to reload her weapon; she knew she was going to die, ever since she first saw that first kakuna in the trees. _At least I got to save some people before the end...you did good, Jenny ol' girl. You did good. _She closed her eyes to prepare for the searing pain of a beedrill blade in her chest...

The strike never came. Shattering the moment that Jenny felt would last forever, the blue ford slammed into the beedrill about to strike and sent it careening off into the foliage behind it, the blaring horn momentarily stunning the remaining swarm and causing them to rear back in surprise. Through the open passenger door, Ash leaned over and yelled, "Get your ass in!"

The Jenny was surprised, but pleasantly so--she hadn't expected the people she'd saved to take the time to rescue her; she anticipated the "every man for themselves" ideology come into effect when we had the chance--only pausing to smile for a moment before the same cold, expressionless mask came slamming down over her face, all professional and no mucking around. She sidestepped furiously, clubbing two more beedrill in the head to clear the way as Ash honked the horn again to a lesser effect, as the beedrill were expecting it. She leaped into the passenger's seat, propped one black-heeled foot against the dashboard, and slammed the door shut on a beedrill's face. She finished reloading in time to shoot through a now-smashed window as a pair of blade-arms thrust through the glass, rain filling the car interior as more shots went off into said beedrill's head. As quickly as he could, Ash threw the truck into reverse and slammed on the gas, causing it to jump backwards as the beedrill flew over to continue the assault, backing out onto the main road. I screamed and covered my head as glass rained down on me in the backseat from behind as the beedrill in front of us smashed in rear window. The beedrill presumably responsible buzzed in alarmed pain as Jenny whipped her gun around to put them down.

The truck bumped sharply as it bounced over the edge of the side of the road, nearly causing everyone--especially me, with no anchor in the back seat--to hit their head on the ceiling as Ash twisted the wheel to get us parallel to the road, snapped the gear forward, and slammed on the gas, jutting us forward as we made our escape. A beedrill in front of us ricocheted harshly off the windshield as the truck plowed into it, flying up over the top of the vehicle, leaving behind a splatter of blood on the cracked glass where it hit. We were moving and rapidly picking up speed, but by no means were we safe yet--beedrill still could outrun us, some flying ahead to cut us off, others stabbing into the windows to try to get us, a pair of the rather tenacious insects slamming down onto the roof of the truck, stabbing through the thin blue metal with their immense blade-arms. I screamed and beat one of their arms jutting through the back window with the flashlight, trying to get it to lose their grip. Jenny shot the beedrill outside her window in the head, sending its headless body tumbling across the pavement as she leaned up outside briefly, shooting the beedrill atop us with pinpoint precision. Half of the creature's head vanished in a red mist; just for the hell of it, she fired a second round into the other half of its head, sending its now headless body flying off the truck before withdrawing back into the vehicle to avoid a flurry of purple needled flying by. Ash kept his eyes locked on the road, clutching the steering wheel with white knuckles, rapidly flicking looks down to the speed gauge, which climbed past 30, then 35, then 40...50...55...60...

The beedrill, now unable to keep up, hissed and buzzed in angered unison, flying up higher for their grand finale as the truck began to slowly crawl away. They flied up in a bunch, arched back their abdominal stingers, then jabbed them forward as though stabbing an invisible target in front of them. The stab itself wasn't what caught my eye...rather, it was the sphere of purple sludge that came hurtling at us that got me worried. "Sludge Bomb!" I cried, covering my head.

I heard Ash swear and Officer Jenny order "Get down!" before the toxic globes began striking, splashing across the back of the truck and bursting like water balloons on the road around us. Ash dodged the best he could, managing to get in a few good misses on their part, the odds of hitting us lowering as the distance between the truck and the swarm grew larger and larger. Seeing how I was ducked down in the seat, Jenny brought her gun around to bear, pointing it out the rear window. Using her excellent marksmanship, she was able to fire into the Sludge Bombs that were on a collision course with us, bullets shredding through the globes of sludge and popping them in mid-air. That easily reduced the hits we took to nearly zero.

Finally out of range, the Sludge Bombs stopped coming as the last round landed far too far from us to pose any kind of threat, the swarm eventually becoming mere yellow specks in the rear-view mirror, eventually disappearing behind the road as it curled up behind us slightly. Ash's head thumped the back of his seat in relief, the Jenny exhaling the breath she'd been holding, gun clattering into her lap as she closed her eyes, panting slightly. I was silent for a moment before the insane fear finally struck somewhere, at which time I began letting out short, gasping sobs. My upper torso was covered in drying beedrill gore, I was scared shitless from nearly being killed _again, _and the emotions just poured out as the adrenaline faded. That had been....incredible. Fucking scary as hell, but incredible nonetheless. How in Arceus's name did we get out of _that? _Ash and I both had been chased by our share of beedrill swarms...but nothing like this. This just took it to a whole new level.

I looked up a bit as something warm and firm took a hold on my shoulder, seeing the white glove of the officer...it was in fact Officer Jenny, but I didn't make the realization up till now, as my attention had been elsewhere. "O-Officer...J-J-Jenny..?"

Smiling softly to comfort me, the teal-haired cop nodded. "That's right," she said gently, her voice not at all containing the gruff threat it had a moment ago. She sounded so...nurturing. Like an angel. "I'm Jenny Lenwes of the Viridian City Police Department. Most of my friends just call me 'Len,'" she added with a touch of friendly conversation, more or less to make a certain timid blunette among us more comfortable. "Who are you?"

I sniffled a bit, wiping at my face, my arm coming back slightly red from the dried blood my tears dampened. "I-I'm Dawn..."

"'Dawn'...that's a nice name. I like it." Len now smiled warmly, making me feel...Arceus-only-knows how many times better. It was just a simple compliment, but it meant a bit more to me in my currently trembling state. "A pleasure to meet you, Dawn...although the circumstances _are_ a little questionable."

"'A little?'" Ash repeated, smiling a bit despite himself. He knew as well as I did that we just made ourselves a very helpful ally...mostly because she was a cop and she had a fucking _gun. _"Seems more than 'a little' to me. I'm Ash Ketchum, by the way," he added, taking a hand off the steering wheel to shake.

Len cracked a grin, shaking his hand firmly, betraying her petite proportions with her strong grip. "'Ketchum?' Lemme guess...a trainer, right? Gotta 'catch em' all?"

Ash rolled his eyes, returning his attention to the road. "Ha ha, very funny. Never heard _that _one before..."

I giggled, causing Len to smile. She sat back in her seat a bit, rising up off her slender rear for a moment to wipe a combination of glass, bullet casings, and pieces of beedrill skull out of her seat onto the floor before sitting down again. She reached into one of her pockets to retrieve a navy-blue handkerchief, handing it back to me. "Here, you've got a few spots...well, one _big _spot, actually."

I stifled a laugh, accepting the cloth and wiping my face a bit, taking away a film of dried gore from my face. I had some everywhere, and it was unlikely that I would get it all, but I was gonna give it my all; I dampened it with my tongue a bit, using the saliva to help pry the brown-red substance from my face, neck, and shoulders, sighing in pity at the state of my nightgown, which was completely ruined by both blood and the hole in the stomach. Oh well...it was cute when I bought it, anyway.

Len nodded approvingly at my grooming, then looked at Ash. "You too, Ketchum. You've got a spot."

"No," I piped up, grinning. "He always looks that bad."

Ash just rolled his eyes again as Len and I laughed, grinning himself. It felt good to have a nice laugh after such a scare like that. It was just a bit of dry humor, hardly worthy of note any other time--Ash and I bickered like that all the time--but after being so frightened, even the tiniest thing seemed to make a huge difference. It was nice to be able to smile after cowering in fear for your life.

Len sighed, glancing over her shoulder to check on the beedrill behind us, who were long gone from view. We'd left them in the dust. "Where are you folks headed?"

"Pewter," Ash answered. "Well...at least, I guess we are, anyway. If we weren't, we are now."

Len nodded. "Good. That's where I'm going, too. I want to see what's left of the Pewter City police force."

I finished cleaning myself off as best I could, glancing at my face in the rear-view mirror. I actually did a nice job...on my face, anyhow. My hair was a mess. I didn't think the Jenny carried shampoo around with her, so I just set the soiled handkerchief aside and left it as-is. "What were you doing over there, anyways?"

"My partner and I were headed north to rally what was left of the Viridian police department," Len replied. "Viridian went down hard. We were supposed to fall back to meet up in Pewter, but our cruiser ran out of gas; fuel line broke. My partner and I tried to cut through the forest on foot to see if we couldn't make it to the nearby camping grounds, where people might not have heard about what's going on." Her gaze shifted down slightly. "My...partner didn't make it. The swarm left the nest to go hunting and found us."

Ash muttered "Damn," shaking his head with a displeased expression. _Too many dead people already..._

"That's not normal beedrill behavior," I thought out loud, trying to recall having seen any kakuna in the trees we were nearby. That would be the only normal way to evoke a swarm: startle the hive. Get too close to the kakuna. But, for the life of me, I couldn't remember seeing any. "They usually stick close to the colony and act as sentinels for their young. They don't usually have that kind of behavior."

Len scoffed. "Which kind of behavior: the 'hunt and kill' mentality, or the part where they went insane and started killing everyone?"

"What's the deal with that, anyway?" Ash interjected, looking away from the road to face the Officer Jenny. "Pallet's gone to hell; everyone's dead. What the hell is going on around here?"

Len snapped "Damn it!" under her breath, teeth gritting at the announcement of the news. Clearly she had been thinking hopefully about the fates of the other town. Staring angrily off into space for a moment, she eventually just sighed and slumped back into her seat, throwing her hands up in front of her in exasperation. "I have _no _idea. Reports about attacks started coming in around 6 the other night, and my team was mobilized. We arrived, and...everything's crazy. The pokemon, the...I don't know. I just _don't know. _None of this makes any sense..."

Disappointed, I leaned forward a bit. "You mean...the NPDF doesn't know anything about it?"

Len shook her head distastefully, just as off-put about her ignorance as the rest of us. "All I know is that the pokemon have gone crazy and are killing everyone they come in contact with. Trainers, civilians, gym leaders...we're all fair game. They've turned on us, and we sure as hell aren't winning."

Ash stared downtroddenly back to over the road. "I figured as much..."

"Well," I spoke up, voice growing small beneath my fears, "w-what do we do now?"

"The only thing we can do," Len replied, slapping a fresh clip into her gun. "Head to Pewter City, contact the police force there, and try to get an evac out of here. I heard that evacuations were being planned in specific locations, but I didn't get to hear where they were." She waved a hand up, indicating the smoke-choked sky, which was turning a dirty pink as the sun began to rise on the other side of the wall of trees to our right. "All the debris and shit in the air is playing hell with the communication networks. I can barely get a strong enough signal to phone someone across the street, let alone in another city."

"So you can't call for help?"

"If I could, do you think I would have wandered into Viridian Forest without a suit of battle armor?"

I shrugged a bit. "Point..."

"Alright, so that's the plan?" Ash glanced between us both. "Go to Pewter, pray they know what's going on? And that anyone's left to tell us?"

Len shrugged nonchallantly. "Pretty much, yeah."

"...huh." Ash turned slowly back to face the road, then shook his head. "...figures..."

I sat back in the back seat, sighing as I tried to relax. _It's alright,_I tried to assure myself, rubbing my eyes of the fatigue beginning to creap up on me. _Nothing to worry about. We're gonna get through this just fine. Officer Jenny's going to help us, and we're going to go to Pewter so we can get rescued. It's all going to be okay. It's all going to be okay. All...going to...be okay... _Desite my assurance that it would in fact be okay, I could still see the frenzied eyes of the beedrill staring into my face, crimson eyes smoldering beneath the heat of their animosity...the same hollow, malice-filled stare of a fallen Pikachu that I knew and loved...the stare of my once-loving buneary through the hole she'd punched in the door... _It's all gonna be okay....it's all gonna be okay...it's all gonna be okay. It IS going to be okay._

...isn't it?

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_**AN**_

And here we go: one chapter, as ordered, heavy on the beedrill brains. May I put in that I particularly enjoyed writing this chapter? There's something sadistically appealing about taking a horde of beedrill and going on about how their heads are exploding. I'm starting to take a liking to this whole "butcher pokemon" concept here. Maybe I have something good going after all! ^^

Anyway, here you go. I'm not quite as confident about this chapter as I was the other one, because I got the impression that it came out a bit rushed. Maybe that's just the tense feeling of the combat. I'm not sure. Clarify to let me know how it turned out, mm? I might need to go back and polish it up a bit...minus the amount of beedrill gore, of course. OwO

Happy pokepocalypse, everyone~!


	5. Follow The Pewter Bricked Road

_(The amount of love my story is getting tickles me so~! You guys are awesome. I'm flattered that you think it's really that good! I've gotten more views from this story in the last 3 days then I did for all my other stories combined in last month! I have fans~! 8D You guys are the shiz!)_

_((As I'm sure you've noticed, the rating has gone up. And I'm sure you all know why. I don't suppose the butchered beedrill in the last chapter had _anything _to do with that...O_o')_

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**_Follow The Pewter-Bricked Road_**

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_Ash's POV_

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The ride up to Pewter was much more pleasant, now that we had an extra companion. Len and I would chatter on at first, while Dawn was still feeling a little dazed from the encounter with the beedrill(and her second near-death experience), but then she'd start in as well, bubbling on in conversation until I was completely bumped from the topic, listening as the two gossiped like school girls. It was a bit warming, actually; it was nice to be able to have a little normalcy floating around the air instead of the fatalistic ideology that came with not knowing what was happening, apart from everything going to hell. Here we were, driving for our lives to a city that might not even exist on the map anymore, and those two were just chatting away, as happy as could be. It reminded me a lot of my days back when we were traveling around, the air of girls having a nice conversation filling my ears. It was soothing, actually. I didn't mind at all that I was being completely ignored; half the fun was listening.

Len came from the Jenny family, as expected, though she had a back-story unique to her, as I'm sure all the other Jenny's did. She grew up in Vermilion and came to Viridian to get a nice education in Viridian University, where she took up the family tradition of becoming a cop. She got along well with the other Jenny's in that area, as well as some of the Joy's from the Joy family, though she had a bit of a scuffle with one of them in college. The police department was more than happy to have her on the force, as the reputation of the Jenny's proceeded her; she in particular was especially crafty with a gun, although she was a bit too trigger-happy for their tastes, hence why she was only allowed to carry around a taser anymore. The 12mm magnum she carried around was from her partner, who snuck out an extra one when things started getting chaotic. She always kept around plenty of ammo to spare.

Along with a few other things, I learned that Len was a lot like Misty, the way she acted. She was short and tended to be no-nonsense, though she did know how to make a person laugh and appreciate a good joke, and the way she behaved around us, you'd think we'd been friends forever. She fit right in with us almost immediately, and our duo became a trio right off the bat. No compatibility issues to take note of. It was like we were related somehow; the way she opened up to us was enough to make me suspicious...if I wasn't so damn glad to find another live human being around here, that is. She was cool and kick-ass, she had a gun, and that was all I needed to know. She was one of us, as far as I was concerned.

We came down the off-ramp to Pewter just as the sun came up over the top of Viridian forest, though it was pretty obvious the light wasn't going to do us much good; the smoke was positively clogging the sky, and the persistent burning was enough to illuminate the entire horizon all around us an angry red, regardless of where the sun actually was. It was coming up on morning, but it still looked like night, bar the pink-red clouds up above us that looked like vicious blood smears against the dreary gray sky. Even the _sky _was in pain and bleeding out. It only went to show how greatly this was affecting the world, reflecting the trauma being pounded away into the human conscience-

_No. _I shook my head to rid it of such pessimistic thoughts, focusing on the task at hand. _I can't get all downtrodden and depressed. Getting overly-optimistic wouldn't be too good a move right now, but deciding everything's lost and we're all gonna die isn't exactly going to help us out, either. I just gotta focus on what we're doing, what we need to do, and how we're going to do it. That's it. Nothing else matters right now._

"Stick to the main road," Len informed me, sitting up a bit straighter in her seat as she snapped the safety off her gun. One foot propped her against the dashboard, leaning over to get a good sight out the window, where she could get a nice shot off without having to punch through the windshield or car frame. "This will take us right to the Police Station. We can duck through the alleys and get there really quick."

I nodded, running a failed traffic light, then frowned, easing up on the gas. "Uh-oh," I muttered, following up with pressing the brakes. "We gotta problem here."

That was an understatement; up ahead the entire street was full of cars, each empty and some positioned at sharp angles, completely congested with not even enough room to stick your arm through. Some had their doors open, their lights on or motors still lightly humming as they idly used up the last remaining fuel in their tanks, loyally awaiting their former owner's return. Unless my truck was a pokemon and evolved into a monster truck, we weren't going anywhere on wheels. "Looks like we're going to have to hike the rest of the way," Len observed, that official persona returning to her otherwise motherly demeanor.

Dawn shook her head, looking out the windows--or where they would have been--nervously. Pewter wasn't exactly in ruin, but it wasn't the urban sprawl it had become over the years, either; the buildings were either burnt out, smashed open and looted, or completely abandoned, debris and Arceus-only-knows-what littering the streets and walkways. I don't even want to know how many of those were bodies. "B-b-but...th-there are pokemon out there! Out on the streets..."

I cut the gas, then turned in my seat to pat her shoulder, settling with her head when that's all I could reach. Her blunette hair was slightly crispy from dried blood and riddled with bits of shriveled beedrill brain, but I wasn't about to point that out to her; we'd be here for another hour while she went insane and tried to fix her hair. "We don't have a choice," I said gently. "Don't worry, we'll keep you safe. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise." I glanced to Len, who nodded and smiled reassuringly.

Dawn paused a moment, eyes drooping a bit at my touch as I just pat her head like she was a little kid. She didn't mind, though; she was usually pretty content with me just patting her head, though it was often in play, where she would fuss and try to fix the hair I messed up. She didn't, though, visibly relaxing for a moment, then nodding. She looked at my eyes, like she always did. I don't know what it is about them that she loves so much. "...okay. But only cuz you promised."

"Good." Len snapped the safeties off her pistol, reaching into one of her holsters to pull out her taser, which she tossed to me. "Here, until we find something with a bit more kick."

I quickly retracted my hand from Dawn's head to fumble for the device, holding it up to examine it. I pushed the button near the front, blinking from the sudden burst of light caused by the electricity dancing between the iron tongs, crackling in eager chorus, ready to be used. I watched the arc jump between the two metal pegs a moment, momentarily fascinated by the sight until my mind went back a bit, thinking of what this reminded me of. _Pikachu... _I released the button as if to silence said thoughts, reaching for the door. I pulled on the handle-

-and the door fell of its hinges, clattering harshly to the pavement.

I retracted my hand, staring at the spent door for a moment, none of us moving. I looked over to Len, who was wide-eyed and biting her lip, listening for any sounds of pokemon that had heard such a sharp noise. Dawn looked ready to pass out.

When nothing came, I swallowed hard, leaning out the door to examine the source of the sudden detachment. Upon closer observation, I saw that the top hinge had been melted slightly, a huge amount of rust eating away at the inside of the door. Not remembering ever seeing such a degraded state, I stepped out to examine the rest of the truck. Turns out, the old ford hadn't fared as well as I thought it had; the entire exterior looked like we'd been in a gun fight from all the holes punched into the sides, roof, and hood, looking more like swiss cheese around a truck frame than metal of any quality. The paint and outer layers of metal were severely corroded, traces of purple staining the outside of the massive rust patches all along the outside of the vehicle. It looked like the car was 50 years old and had been in a firefight with guns and hoses squirting grape jelly. My truck was totaled.

Len crawled out of the passenger door's open window, being careful not to cut herself on the glass outlining the edges. Dawn followed suit, though she crawled out the open doorway...er, what _was _a doorway. Now it was just a hole in its side. She blinked at the extent of the damage, a pale hand absently drifting to her chin. "Holy shit..."

I nodded in agreement, a hand running through my bangs. Honestly, I was just glad that we decided to ditch it when we did; it looked ready to fall apart any second now. I doubted that I could have gotten the thing back up and running again, if the engine even worked. Was it possible for a truck to run on adrenaline?

Len was the first to come back to reality, dragging us back along with her. She waved down the street we had tried to go down, leaping up onto the front of a large van facing us. "C'mon, this way. We'll climb over the cars."

I used the bumper to gain a footing, stopping to help Dawn up by the hand, making sure she didn't slip. She was barefoot, so she had a bit more dexterity than us with our shoes, but she was also more prone now that her bare skin was exposed. I made sure to hold onto her hand to make sure she didn't fall or anything as we clamored over the roofs of the cars.

As far as fires went, Pewter was pretty untouched; some of the buildings had signs of being scorched near the doorways and around the edges of the windows, but for the most part the only state of disrepair they were in was abandonment...except for a few cases, of course, where entire walls were caved in. I wasn't particularly eager to find out what pokemon had done that, jumping from car to car in silence, as to not give away our position.

Len jumped up onto a semi trailer, gun held at her side as she peered out down the street we were headed down. The entire road was clogged with abandoned vehicles, forming a solid plane of metal to stretch all the way down the street for as far as the eye could see. The visibility wasn't best, what with the smokey haze lingering in the air like artificial fog, but the concept was pretty baffling. Where the hell did all these cars come from? "Geezus, these cars stretch on for miles!"

"Must've had a buy-one-get-one sale down at the automobile plant," I grunted, pulling Dawn up onto a truck tilted onto an awkward angle. I'd had to scale the entire side to stand on the back, which was propped up into the air.

Dawn scrambled up after me, clinging my hand with both of hers as her feet squeaked on the smooth metal. She looked around a bit, seeing the same sight we did. "Where are all the people?" she asked, though silently fearing the answer.

Len shrugged, jumping down to the roof of a pale-green oldsmobile. Ugliest fucking color ever. "Maybe they all left them when they got rescued!" she said hopefully, intent on lifting Dawn's spirits.

Under my breath I muttered, "That's _one _theory..."

Len shot me a glare before continuing on ahead, scouting out a route ahead. Dawn and I followed, though it was a bit slower with the two of us. Len clearly had training for this sort of thing; she leaped from roof to roof with the ease and grace of a monferno, never once breaking a stride or stumbling. We, however, didn't fare so well; I slipped and fell twice, while Dawn stumbled on every other vehicle we had to climb over, stubbing her toes several times. I offered to carry her, but she just blushed and shook her head, politely declining. Dunno why she blushed, but whatever.

Dawn and I stumbled on, easily about 4 or 5 cars behind Len when she suddenly stopped, gun snapping up. We both froze in unison, following her gunsights down the street...then suddenly up when she stabbed her weapon into the sky.

Overhead, a trio of murkrow flapped by, cawing noisily as they did so. They cleared the width of the street quickly before Len could squeeze off a shot, though doing so might not have been the best idea, since they didn't attack. That didn't unnerve us any less, however; there was always the possibility of pokemon following the source of the noise, as the city streets were almost completely silent, and every noise echoed through the streets like a cave. Firing a bullet might as well have been shooting a flare up to let everything everywhere know exactly where we were.

Len suddenly began jumping cars to the right, headed for a pair of buildings across the street. "This way," she hissed to us. "We'll cut through the alleys; we're too exposed out in the open."

I nodded in agreement, pulling Dawn along as I tried to pick up the pace. I jumped for the flatbed of a red truck, but missed and ended up jamming my leg into the space between it and another car. It hurt like a bitch and made me swear profusely, but it wasn't anything bad, so we continued...albeit at a considerably more cautious rate.

When we (finally) arrived to an impatient and anxious-looking Len, she led us down the alley, which fit the bill as a shady, narrow corridor you'd never want to go down alone for fear of getting mugged. Or jumped by rabid pokemon, as the situation warranted. Dawn whipped out her flashlight from the police car as Len switched on the built-in light on her 12mm, leading us down the shadowy walkway weapon-first. Not surprisingly, we found a body wedged between a soiled cardboard box and a tipped trash can, appearing to be one of the people that would live in said alley; the dark blue hoodie and lack of shoes said it all. The box was tipped onto its side, though I could faintly make out the words "Growlithe: 5 dollars each" on the side, a few paw prints of dried blood leading away from the man's corpse confirming said pokemon had been here. Judging by the man's almost total lack of a chest from having been torn open, we guessed the growlithe puppies really didn't like being sold at such a meager wage and gave the man their two-bit before heading for the hills. Oh well; at least their next owners could say they knew how to hunt, right?

A sharp bark was enough to make Dawn gasp, me freeze, and Len pry her eyes off the body to snap her gun up, pointing down the alley to identify the source of the noise. She didn't leave me much time to see a black and red shape rushing down towards us before she fired twice, both rounds hitting the presumably canine pokemon in the chest and neck. It let out a sharp whimper and collapsed onto its side, paws twitching as it contorted in pain, continuing to whine with its neck craned into the air, as if begging for mercy from above.

It received some, though perhaps not in the form it wanted; Len stepped up to bat, pointed her gun at it, and pumped a round down into its face, the metal slug transforming the top of its head into a gory soup. The skull-like plate on its head was sent flying off, clattering off the brick wall and spinning slightly on the ground, dyed a deep red on the bottom.

Upon closer inspection, I identified the pokemon as houndour, rather than the growlithe I thought it would be, because of the box. Its bony ankle-growths made it look like it belonged on a chain gang, the red underbelly, red snout--red from more than just its normal fur now--and sleek black fur gave it a more gothic appearance. Around its neck I saw the reflective flash of a spiked collar, a little tag reading "Bruiser" dangling off the front.

Len muttered something about "man's best friend indeed" as I started to step forward, but Dawn stopped me with a tug of the hand. "Wait, they travel in packs!"

That was all we needed to hear--I stepped back to a safe distance, gripping my taser a bit tighter as Len kept her gun sighted directly ahead of us near the mouth of the alley. There was a moment of silence before three more black shapes came rushing down the alley to greet us, night-black paws padding and ivory claws clacking against the rough pavement. They resembled the houndour that came before, though one was considerably larger with horns coming out of its head--a houndoom--which I guessed was the pack leader. The pack snarled in unison and charged, teeth flashing with saliva in the light beams fixed on them.

Len gave them a warm welcome, unleashing a volley of rounds into the pack. The one houndour fell as the other stumbled from having its leg blown out from under it, the houndoom rushing forward ahead of its fallen pack mates. Len pumped a trio of rounds into it and emptied her clip, but it kept coming, satanic red eyes blazing at us from within its head, seemingly absorbing the light blaring into them. With nowhere to move to dodge the attack, Len backed up frantically, forcing us to do the same as it ran us down. It leaped up to tackle Len to the ground, but she flattened herself against the wall, dodging the attack and inadvertently setting its sights on us. Teeth clamped around my shin and I howled in pain, stabbing the prongs of the taser I held into its back as Dawn screamed. The houndoom went a bit rigid, eyes widening in surprise as it let go of me and staggered back out of my reach, sparks crackling between the hairs standing straight up on its back. Len followed up with a kick to its jaw, slapping a fresh clip into her gun as the houndoom continued back, only to take a wave of bullets to its chest. The creature yelped and crumpled to the ground, finally put down along with its other pack mates. A follow-up shot to the houndour whose leg she'd dismembered ended the battle for good.

We didn't relax, though; Dawn stammered and held onto my side as I doubled over to inspect the damage to my leg, Len rushing to my aid as well. Lights fixed on my shin, I saw that the houndoom hadn't done much damage, though I was bleeding a bit where its teeth had dug into my flesh, and it hurt like something terrible. It wasn't enough to kill me, though, hence why I waved it off. "It's fine," I assured them. "It's just a little thing..."

Len paid me no heed, looking at it for herself before standing. "It's not bad, but you're going to need that later before it gets infected. Arceus only knows what those mutts were carrying..." She cast a distasteful leer at the motionless corpses in our path. "We'll patch you up when we get to the police station. Right now, we gotta keep moving."

"Right." I looked down as Len started forward, extending my foot forward a bit before stepping down slowly, testing its stability. Naturally, the weight made my bite wound hurt even worse, but it wasn't enough incapacitate me, though it _was _enough to create a limp. Dawn clung to my arm, unsure of what to do, as we followed after Len, stepping carefully past the corpses littering the walkway. Dawn took wide steps to avoid the puddles of blood, as she didn't want to step in the sickly warm bodily fluids unless she had no other choice.

We made our way to the other side of the alley, Len sweeping her gun along the car-packed street in search of a target with mechanized efficiency. Seeing no contacts, she waved us forward, clinging to the sidewalk to avoid standing out in the open again. We moved along the side of the street, Len in front with me limping behind, Dawn clinging to my arm until we came up to yet another alley that would cut through to the other side of the street yet again. This time, though, Len motioned for us to halt. "Lemme scout ahead," she told us, moving forward. Not wanting to walk into another ambush again, we said nothing and remained where we were, staring after her curiously.

Len continued up with slow, careful strides, gun pointed forward and light probing the walkway as she crept along. She paused when she was at the end, then jumped out and snapped her gun out, quickly twisting around to face the other direction just as fast. She was still for a moment before the gun went off, firing three widely-spaced rounds off presumably at her target, causing Dawn to grip me a little tighter. I patted her arm reassuringly, glancing behind us to make sure we were still alone. I didn't particularly want another bite to match the one I had.

Satisfied it was clear, Len waved us over, signaling that it was alright to approach. Warily we made our way over, glancing nervously over our shoulders, expecting another pack of houndour to rush out at any moment. The fact that they didn't was a bit of a relief. When we were on the other side with Len, I looked over to see what she had been shooting at. Further down the sidewalk, a hitmonchan lay in a heap, blood pooling out beneath it, completely still. It was at least a full block away.

The street we entered was considerably more clear than the other two, probably due to the smoldering wreckage of a semi stretched out across the road, fused to the side of a corvette, completely blocking off the street and filling the air with the stench of propane. "That explains the traffic," I thought aloud, picturing the heaps of cars blocked off on the other side. The poor people had been boxed into a death trap.

Len nodded, glancing down at my leg, frowning at the red beginning to soak through my pant's leg. She then started down the street, waving us along. Wary, we continued to follow her lead, hoping she wasn't walking us to some dead end street. She_ seemed _to know where she was going, anyhow.

As Pewter's Police Department peered over in the distance through the light haze, my leg really started to hurt, my limp progressively becoming more defined as red continued to leak out of my shin. The entire area around the bite was beginning to burn, feeling like embers sliding around beneath the skin down to my ankle. It was getting bad enough for Dawn to want to start helping me walk, although I was stubbornly refusing her every step of the way(no pun intended).

"Listen to me," Dawn finally hissed, gripping my arm a bit tighter to get my attention. "You're hurt, and I _am _going to help, so just pull up your big-boy panties and accept it!"

Grunting more out of pain than annoyance, I reluctantly complied, leaning into her a bit as she fastened my arm around her shoulders. She was petite and a bit smaller than me, but seemed to be able to support the weight I put on her. I glanced over to see her smiling smugly to herself. _Damn it, Dawn, you're lucky there's a cop 5 feet from us, or I'd strangle you..._Oh, well. I guess it beat crawling the whole way. I actually was grateful for her help, but I wasn't about to admit that aloud, so I just looked ahead to the policewoman a few meters ahead as she led us forward. I think I would rather throw myself back to those houndour than admit to Dawn that I was glad she was there.

* * *

_Len's POV_

* * *

"Arceus damn it, Ketchum, quit your squirming and let me finish!" I snapped irritably, pressing my shoulder into the boy's leg to get him to hold the fuck still as I finished wrapping the black-haired man's bleeding wound with medical tape, provoking a soft moan from him as he tried yet again to twitch his leg; the idiot lost his right to show his discomfort when he kicked me in the jaw the second time. I'm pretty patient around civilians, but for Mew's sake, I had my limits! He was only a few years younger than me, in his mid-twenties if I had to guess, though thanks to the holes gnawed in his leg, he easily resembled a defenseless kid. Taking heavy breaths, the young man sat up against the bloodstained office wall he'd been propped up against.

All around us stood what remained of the once-proud Pewter Police Department.

I'd stifled multiple obscenities when we came up to the police station. The difference between the condition of the station and the other buildings we'd seen on our way into the city was mind-boggling; it was like walking into a completely different world of damage! Though the building stood, it resembled a gutted fish, and by no means was it any less disgusting. Poorly boarded windows were busted, lined by bloodied scratches of insane predators that previously forced their way inside. It was pretty obvious that the pokemon horde that had been here had forced its way inside and tore through the building like a storm straight out of Hell; documents, books, and equipment were strewn in broken piles and fragments all over the previously polished floors. Floors were layered in filth; dirt from toppled decorative plant stands, but most notably shell casings and, of course, the innumerable blood stains all across the area. I couldn't even tell what the walls had been colored beforehand, it was so bad. Blood was everywhere; the floors, walls, desks, chairs…hell, even on the _ceiling,_in select locations. Bullet holes also decorated the grisly surroundings, making it tricky to traverse the floors without tripping over countless shell cases like ball bearings. Even though the worst of the attack was apparently over, and I was graced with discovering the stragglers--two machop and a hungry spearow munching away on the scraps--the building was still a veritable slaughterhouse. Bodies--some whole bodies, others only partial--bled from every nook and cranny, slicking the floor with entire gallons of congealing blood and gore. They were cops, too; their badges and blue NPDF uniforms all stained in their own life fluids. The poor bastards didn't stand a chance.

_That_ was what really shook me; how in Arceus's name had the pokemon done this? Based on the amount of pokemon outside, I would go to venture that even if the entire city's population of pokemon had turned and taken everyone by surprise all at once, the security and limited organization of the local government should have been able to get a relatively sizable and/or efficient defense in place by the time the worst came. They should have gotten organized, banded together, and fought. Pewter City was big, sure, but it wasn't _that _big. There weren't nearly enough pokemon present to inflict the extent of damage I was seeing; unless they were all massive super-pokemon, these people had to have stood down and let the pokemon come over them! They were absolutely _butchered!_ No _way _a mere city's worth of pokemon could do this much. It just didn't seem possible.

But, if it wasn't possible, how did they do it? They were either getting smart, there were more pokemon here than I thought...or we were dealing with something more than just a mindless horde of rabid pokemon.

Just because there was an encouraging lack of rabid pokemon outside didn't mean that it was 100% safe, but it was safer than other places in the city, and it gave Ash, Dawn and I a good chance to stop a moment and collect ourselves. Ash, especially, needed a moment so he could get his leg patched up, even though he kicked and squirmed like a baby. Fortunately, the police station still had a few emergency supplies, and I greedily took advantage of a first-aid kit. At least Ash's bite wasn't bad; it was bleeding, and I'm sure it hurt like hell--it fucking _better _hurt, with how difficult he made it to fix--but it wasn't life-threatening. Just a nicked artery: a quick patch-up job on the field even I knew how to do. That plus a few spray-on pain meds scratched one thing off my list of things to worry about.

Dawn was sitting idly on the table to the station's office, legs swaying a bit as she sat by despite her anxiety to do something, bringing the blue coat she found laying around a bit further onto her shoulders. She wore shoes now, though they were a bit big for her, turning her flashlight around in her hands to distract herself. The armory to the station was completely stripped, but there were enough weapons laying around to arm the two of them; each of them a 12mm, a second one for me, plus a combat knife and a pair of flash-bang grenades. There was a semi-automatic 12-gauge security shotgun as well, which I kept strapped on my back, deciding it would be best to save the heavier firepower for the emergencies, like if we came up against anything..._bigger. _There were tons of species of pokemon that I wouldn't want to go up against in Kanto, and any one of them could be present here. The last thing we needed was a giant pokemon rampaging around and us not being able to defend ourselves. A shotgun might work against something like...oh, say, a kangaskhan or a snorlax, but we could face a real problem against steel-types or onix, one which was owned by the local gym leader. I'd have to keep an eye out for one of those...

Information-wise, I couldn't come up with very much; the documents and papers laying around that weren't soiled were all tedious things regarding the city before the place went to hell, proving to be completely useless to us in just about every way, bar whose corpses we would find in the jail cells. In fact, had my eyes not rested on the bulletin board in the other room, I might not have come up with anything at all...

"Hey, check this out!"

Quickly Dawn jumped up off the table, glad to be able to finally do something, quite mindful of the gun stored away in her coat pocket, careful not to bump it, as if it might break or go off. She quickly went over to Ash, who waved her off, not particularly eager to move. "Leave me here a moment...I'm waiting for the pain killers to kick in."

Dawn frowned but didn't protest, hurrying over to the room I was in, carefully stepping past the bodies stacked up. She came to me, eyes locking on the map posted onto the meeting room board. "Whoa..."

It was a Kanto map, riddled with countless scribbles and words written in marker and pen all across the paper. Cerulean City, Saffron, Celadon, and Lavender Town were circled, the last two crossed off as if an afterthought, the other cities scratched off or otherwise marked unsuitable. The phrase "EVAC TO HOENN" was written sloppily over the position of Saffron City, and arrow stabbing off towards the western edge of the map to signify where they were going.

I picked up one of the many papers haphazardly scattered on the table, skimming over the emergency report. "...says here they've got evacs going on across Kanto," I said, loud enough for Ash to hear in the other room. "In the last 24 hours, military convoys are escorting civilians to Saffron city, where they're picking them up and taking them to a secure location somewhere in the Hoenn region."

Ash staggered through the door now, apparently well enough to come check out the news. "Where in Hoenn? Is it safe there?"

I shrugged, slapping the paper back down. "I dunno, but that's not really important. It's our best shot so far. Heading to Saffron should be our top priority."

Ash's fists clenched and he looked ready to start demanding something, but he just relaxed and shook his head distastefully, heading off back to the other room, his limp dissipating. Dawn looked a little confused, but I think I understood; he wanted answers, and there weren't any. He had a right to know what the hell was going on, but we didn't have access to that information. I was looking forward to slugging someone in the puruits of knowledge, but that would have to wait, too. Maybe some of the brass in Saffron would know a thing or two...

Dawn turned her attention back to the Kanto map, tracing the best possible route there. It went from Pewter City over to route 3, past Mt. Moon to Cerulean, then south to Saffron City, putting a good couple of miles between us and the destination. She frowned. "I don't know...that's a long way from here. Can we really make it?"

"Only one way to find out," I replied, brushing past her to the room Ash headed to. "Yo, Ketchum, you good enough to walk?"

Ash glanced down to his foot, tapping it against the wall to see. The pain killers seemed to be working quite nicely; he couldn't feel a thing. "Yeah, I guess so. We going?"

"Yep. Gather your things and we'll head out."

"But what about rest?" Dawn asked worriedly. There was a hint of fatigue in her eyes from having to stay up for the last 24 hours, and I saw her yawning a couple of times before.

I was a bit weary too, having never gone to bed from the moment this all started, but we couldn't stop now. "Not here. It's not safe. What if some Ghost pokemon comes along and decides to eat our dreams in our sleep?"

Dawn gulped, shaking her head. "O-okay, yeah. Let's go." She didn't sound terribly enthusiastic, but she knew she didn't really have much of a choice. It was either walk or get left behind. And, being a bit unfamiliar with the weapon sticking out of her pocket, she probably wasn't looking forward to that.

I looked over to Ash, who shrugged and stood by nonchalantly. Seeing as how we were probably as prepared as we were going to get, I fastened the shotgun to my back a bit more tightly, pulled out a pistol in each hand, and stepped out the shattered steel shutters on the entrance of the police station. Obediently, the two followed, girpping their weapons uneasily, the handles seeming foreign to them.

The plan I had was to get to the Pokemon Center so we could move out to route 3, hopefully without incident. We could use the Pokemon Center near the foot of Mt. Moon to hunker down and rest a little before trying to hike through Mt. Moon itself, which I knew was going to be a problem; the place was dangerous enough even before the pokemon started going homicidal all over the place. I didn't know if _all _pokemon were going crazy, but I _did _know that a mountain full of blood-thirsty zubat and golbat was_ not _on the top of my "to-do" list. That, and I had a few hopes about checking out the Center in town; if anyone had survived, they would probably head there. Maybe even Nurse Joy had made it somehow...although I doubted it. It seemed like everyone in the entire fucking city was dead, the bodies laying sprawled out and damaged beyond recognition sporadically scattered about the streets seeming like a good indicator of the fate of the city's inhabitants. _What the hell went on down here? I would have expected at least _some _kind of survivor presence...it's only been a few hours since this got out of control, not even a full 12 hours yet...how can everyone in the entire city be dead or gone so quickly?  
_

Though the streets were bare, barely even filled with cars, let alone living creatures, I wanted to stay as out of the way and as stealthy as possible, sticking to leading the three of us down the alleys and along the more sheltered locations over wandering out in the open in the middle of the street. We probably had already made our presence known from the gunfire before, but just in case we still had some element of stealth remaining, I wanted to make sure we took distinct advantage of it and not waste a single bullet than I already had. The way was pretty clear, bar one cobweb-choked alley with a large spinarak egg clump in the center...other than that, not a single pokemon made itself known. The skies were empty, the streets were still...it was almost like we were alone, and it was starting to make me feel uneasy. _Where the hell did they all go?_

I jumped out to scope an alley between a warehouse of some kind and an apartment complex, guns trained on every possible vantage point. Nothing. There were a couple of bodies near the middle of the walkway, some human and some pokemon, along with a green dumpster and a shattered trash can. The bodies caught my attention; I held up my hand and said "Hold up," lowering my two pistols to kneel down and take a look. The better portion of the bodies were people, and I estimated about 4 or 5, judging by the looks of it. One was fatter and propped up against the wall, the entire upper half of his(or her; it was hard to tell) missing from the waist-up. Two others, presumably female, were both missing their heads, one of which was located amongst the scattered bits of garbage lying around. The one body was completely unidentifiable; the limbs were all missing, the entire chest was ripped open, and the head was bludgeoned beyond recognition. The last body--a male--was what caught my eye. No other part of his body had any damage, apart from the massive gash on his neck that probably killed him, his cold, dead eyes staring straight up into the gray sky, as if searching for guidance therein. His stomach was torn open, and most of his internal organs were gone or chewed up, giving the impression that something had come along and scrambled his insides.

Were the...pokemon..._eating people? _I know that maybe in the wild when times were dire, and there was no other source of food that someone might be eaten by pokemon, but...here? In the city? There were so many alternatives, of which included themselves, since many a pokemon preyed exclusively on pokemon. This wasn't normal pokemon behavior. Then again, neither was going homicidal, so I don't suppose I could draw many conclusions on that...

Dawn and Ash didn't look so calm as I did, both looking rather pale in the face. I prodded a piece of tissue with my gloved hand, causing Dawn to let out a sick noise and turn away, hand over her mouth. I myself felt sickly bile building up in the back of my throat, but professionalism and emotional detachment helped me keep my composure. Not that it was any less disgusting. "Never seen anything like this before," I mused aloud, turning the flesh bit over in my fingers, examining the chewed appearance. I could see teeth marks all over in the tissue here...

Ash scoffed, lip curling in disgust. "Mother of Mew...don't let that stop you from smearing it all over yourself or anything..."

I glared at him out of the corner of my eye, rising up and turning to face him. He glanced casually to the side, trying to act like he didn't do anything, when I suddenly flicked the piece of flesh at him, landing it near his mouth. He let out a yelp and frantically wiped away at his mouth, let out a flurry of repulsive noises and gags as he spat out the contents of his mouth for fear of having ingested a microbe of the macabre sample I'd flung. I smirked mischievously, Dawn laughing at his antics. _Serves him right._

The laughter died down...but a noise continued to sound off. It sounded...female. Light, delicate, gasping and moaning....crying? A woman?

I tensed, snapping a look over to Dawn, who was looking around with wide eyes. She wasn't crying. That meant... "Someone's around here," Dawn finished for me, as if reading my thoughts.

I glanced around, trying to seek out the source of the noise, following it to a door to the warehouse to our left. It was slightly ajar, the room completely pitch-black, the delicate sobbing coming from somewhere therein. Without hesitation I crouched down a bit, flicking on the flashlight on my original 12mm and pointed it at the floor ahead of me, revealing the white and black tiles, stained brown-red in some places. There must have been a scuffle here, too...the poor girl. I instantly felt my heart go out to her, wherever she was. I couldn't imagine what must have happened, or what she must be going through...I stepped forward a bit, glancing about carefully, not wanting to sneak up on the poor girl. Dawn followed up directly behind me, wanting to add to the comfort. Ash stayed outside, seeing as a male's presence would be considerably less nurturing in appearance, glancing around nervously down both ends of the alley as he waited for us to return.

"Hello?" I called softly out, still trying to seek out the source of the crying. The sobs didn't ebb at my call...she must not have heard me. The poor girl had to be terrified. "Hello?"

Dawn tapped my shoulder, pointing to the corner of the room. "Over there," she whispered hoarsely, lightly urging me forward.

I continued on in the direction she'd indicated, hearing the sobs slightly grow louder as we got closer. "Hello?" I called again, now seeing a little movement up ahead. "It's okay," I cooed, light slowly trailing up to where I could see the girl. Not wanting to blind her, I focused on her legs, seeing her now slump forward and her chest heave slightly as the sobs continued. "Don't worry, it's all gonna be alright...we're not gonna hur-"

Dawn's hand suddenly clamped around my arm. I shot her a look to demand "What?", her suddenly fearful expression catching my attention, eyes locked on the girl in front of us. I turned back to look, watching the girl closely, taking in more details...

The girl appeared to have a tan dress on that clung slightly to her legs, wearing small gray shoes of some glossy material, stained red from walking through blood prior. I could see a pair of black bangs hanging from either side of her head, a large black clump running down her back being what I had to guess was a massive ponytail, though the size was disproportionate to her own; it was almost as big as her! Her hands, however...three black claws, black running up a blood-stained arm until it fused with the same tan dress down by her legs, clinging to her arms tightly-

My heart skipped a beat. This wasn't a girl. It wasn't even human. _A pokemon using False Tears._ We had walked head-long into its trap.

Swallowing hard, carefully retracting the light down away from its lower torso to my feet, the light painting the amount of blood present in the room, all dried and congealing, unidentified clumps of Arceus-only-knows scattered about like waterlogged bits of gravel. Thanking whatever lucky stars I had been born under that we hadn't caught its attention yet, I slowly, carefully, began to back up, pressing into Dawn slightly, who followed suit, breathing reduced to breathing scarcely through our noses. I couldn't believe that we hadn't startled it, considering ourselves very fortunate that we hadn't...

Our luck wouldn't hold. Outside I heard a gun go off--Ash's, specifically--freezing when I heard the sobs stop and a breath up ahead hitch slightly in surprise. I pinched my eyes closed, praying to Arceus that Ash wouldn't give away our position-

Ash burst into the room, gun in hand, painting the room with Dawn's flashlight until he found us. "Shit! Len, Dawn, they're coming-"

The light beam inadvertently crossed the pokemon that we had been trying to back away from, completely blowing our cover. I caught glimpse of a pair of red, sunken eyes before a pair of massive jaws snapped over at us and screamed, opening up wide to bear its red-stained teeth, unleashing a shrieking Astonish.

Ash nearly leaped out of his skin. "Mother of-!"

I quickly snapped around and grabbed Dawn by the wrist, screaming _"Run like hell!"_ as the pokemon in question jumped up and charged us, false jaws snapping wildly, intent on closing around one of our heads and tearing us limb from limb.

Ash readily complied, sprinting out of the room along with us and slamming the metal door on the pokemon's face, ducking aside with his gun ready in case it came through. There was a hard _thump _as the pokemon collided with the door, followed by another harsher _thump _as it attacked it, the metal bulging out a full 4 inches from the last strike before a mawhile's black, snapping false jaws erupted through the metal, screaming and biting the air blindly as Ash screamed and began unloading his gun into the pokemon behind it, metal slugs pounding holes through the door into the rabid creature behind. Its metal-hard skin parted reluctantly beneath the force of the 12mm shots, metal fragments splitting off and flying through the air, bouncing off of every wall and solid surface they came in contact with like shrapnel.

I twisted around at the motion that caught my eye, facing the way we'd come. A small group of pokemon were now charging at us, materializing out of the eerie gray mist like spirits, dashing forward like beasts straight out of Hell. Without hesitation I pointed both pistols at them and fired, dropping the pokemon as they came. A squirtle stopped in its tracks until its body "realized" it had no head, flopping over before being forcibly shoved aside by a rogue mankey that bounded over along with two machoke, a hitmonlee, and a raticate, more and more coming out of the haze as they also went down, the smaller pokemon being lifted clean off their feet by the force of the bullets slamming into them. I could see Dawn beside me firing her gun as well, albeit a bit slower than I would have preferred; she'd clearly never fired a weapon before, nearly dropping the pistol every shot she took. Three guns was three guns, however, and the strength in our numbers was enough to mow down the pokemon that trickled into the alleyway, collapsing in our feet minus entire limbs and/or with holes torn through them, climbing over the shattered bodies of their comrades as they threw themselves into our line of fire with animalistic abandon. Their red, frenzied eyes blazed with berserk rage, dripping with hate and oozing antipathy from some unseen inner rancor, completely unafraid--or unaware, blinded by their vengeful fury--of impending death as they descended on our position and threw their bodies into a mound in front of us.

That fucking mawhile summoned the horde. No wonder the bodies were so mangled; they were _swarmed!_

Ash continued pumping rounds into the mawhile from behind the door, being sure to stand outside the creature's snapping maw. Blood was beginning to ooze out of it's metallic hide, but it's vigor was completely unscathed. He leaned in between snaps to try and fire a shot down it's throat, only to yelp in surprise when the gun was snatched from his hand, vanishing in a flash of teeth. "Fuck!"

Without thinking I slipped the shotgun off my back and tossed it to him, not missing a beat in my shooting. Were it not such a tense moment, I would have beat my head against the wall for throwing a fully-loaded assault weapon at a civilian, who shouldn't have had that pistol to begin with.

Ash fumbled the weapon for a moment, then stabbed the barrel into the mawhile's throat before pulling the trigger. A hearty _bang _followed a fountain of blood that spewed out from the shattered pokemon's false mouth, its upper jaw exploding like a jiggsaw puzzle struck with a hammer, the other jaw hanging loosly by a thread as blood spewed out of its "throat." Ash jumped at the sudden kick the gun gave, staring in awe at the power the weapon was capable of. He got this devilish grin on his face before pointing the barrel of the gun back into the whimpering hole in the door and fired yet again, silencing the cries with a splash of hot blood. Scratch one mawhile.

Ash fell in line with us and began pumping rounds into the wave of pokemon that didn't seem to want to quit, blowing a kadabra that had been lucky enough to get this close but stupid enough to not use its psychic powers out of its boots, also wounding the makuhita that had the misfortune of standing directly behind it. A shot slightly further up blew a swablu out of existence in a cloud of red-stained fluffy plumage.

A scream caught my attention; I snapped around to see Dawn suspended in the air, flailing and kicking her feet frantically as she tried to break free of a slimy red rope that had ensnared her, slowly lifting her up to the balcony of the apartment above them. The source of the rope--a rather chubby Lickilicky--was eagerly pulling its tongue in with its arms, its sunken bloodshot eyes shimmering with sadistic glee as it dragged in its prey.

I went to move, but Ash was already rushing in, leaving me to stand my ground and hold off the incoming pokemon. A machoke dropped with a hole in its head, a section of its skull bouncing off of the sheet of bodies streching out to the street. These things just didn't know when to quit!

Dawn was about six feet into the air by the time Ash leaped up to grab her around the legs, causing her to yelp in surprise. The lickilicky grunted, the drag its tongue had left drawing its length out by another few feet. It went to start pulling again, which was countered by Ash, who now had his feet firmly planted on the ground. Together both he and Dawn grabbed its tongue, lifted it up, and then yanked the slimy appendage straight down, dragging its owner over the edge of the railing and causing it to fall down into the alley two stories down. It landed on its head, gave a sharp _crack _upon impact, and promptly rolled a bit on its own girth before it sat still and moved no more.

I turned my head to see what was happening, giving a koffing a perfect opportunity to rush in and tackle me while my head was turned. Weighing only two pounds, the bulbous gas bag wasn't particularly effective at making me move, only annoying me and bringing me back to earth, giving me a good reason to sock the little purple bastard between the eyes with my fist. It flew back a few meters, floating in a daze as a voltorb rolled around a doduo that had stopped to avoid colliding with the koffing, its two heads squawk in protest. Seeing a perfect opportunity, I yelled behind me "Fire in the hole!" before firing one round from each of my pistols, both bullets slamming into the voltorb and stopping the little living pokeball-replica in its tracks. The pokemon sparked violently, electricity crackling about its spherical body a split second before it burst into white light and exploded like a small bomb, igniting the koffing's toxic gasses that burst into a fire ball, filling the alley up with a wall of fire that scorched my officer's hat as I hit the ground, cringing from the heat. By the time the fire died down and the smoke cleared, the doduo was completely gone--likely flash-vaporized on the spot--with all the bodies in the nearby vicinity lit aflame, filling the air with the stench of burning flesh.

I quickly jumped to my feet, both guns at the ready. I was answered by silence; no more pokemon came.

There was a long moment of tense silence before anyone spoke...specifically Ash, who cheered and stabbed a fist excitedly into the air. "Man, that was fucking _awesome!! _Did you guys see me?! I kicked some serious pokemon a-"

Dawn slapped a hand over his mouth, noting briefly that her skin there had gone numb from having made contact with lickilicky saliva. "Shut up, idiot!" she hissed, glancing over her shoulder. "You think that was all of them?!"

I nodded in agreement, taking the time to reload both pistols individually for the umpteenth time, adding to the considerable collection at my feet. She was right; that was a lot of pokemon, but there was no way that had been every pokemon in the entire city. I estimated about...oh, maybe 50 or so that we just put down. A nice number, sure, but that wasn't anything to celebrate about. We still had to make it out of the city alive...and there were plenty more where _those _came from. "Alright, we better move out now, before the rest of them figure out where we are from the smoke. Dawn, watch my back; I'll move up ahead, and we'll-"

Too late. Ash suddenly caught color out of the corner of his eye, turning to see a red zigzag stripe floating away from them at a rapid pace. "Hey!" he said suddenly, bringing his shotgun to bear. He pulled the trigger...and realized the shotgun was out of shells. I still had all the ammo. Giving an annoyed growl, Ash then took off running after the keckleon in question, swearing when it ducked around the corner to the right. "Get back here, you fucker!"

"Ash, wait!" I started after him, but Dawn caught my arm. "What?!"

Dawn winced at my tone, but didn't say anything about it, instead handing her pistol over. "Um, I think my gun's broken..."

Hastily I took the weapon, looking it over for any source of damage when I stopped. The weapon itself was fine, but the gun had jammed somewhere along the line. Realizing I hadn't given her any ammo, Dawn must not have realized it had jammed until just now, thinking the onslaught of bullets had her share of them as well. I popped open the magazine, counting 4 bullets left. That meant that, after 8 shots, I'd been shooting completely on my own. I looked back to the scores of bodies in the alleyway just ahead of us, eyes widening in realizing I killed almost all of them by myself. "Holy shit..."

I was so consumed in realization that I didn't notice the shadow bouncing back and forth between the walls of the alley overhead.

Meanwhile, Ash slowed his pace to a crawl as he readjusted his hold on the shotgun, gripping the barrel and wielding it like a club, eyes scanning the smoky haze for that familiar zigzag pattern. Letting that freak go wasn't an option; it could go back to get help, or stalk them until it found a good place to pick one of us off in an ambush. Not just that, but after all the trouble they'd gone to to kill all of their attackers, no way was one psychopathic lizard going to break the "kill-everything-that-moves" policy we seemed to have adopted so far. Guessing the pink car parked haphazardly on the curb to his right had been the kecleon's first choice of cover, Ash approached the vehicle wearily, grip tightening on his weapon as he came closer. He had to be sure to get the first strike, or risk giving the kecleon the upper hand. This needed to be quick.

Seeing as the door was open Ash peered into the windows, which were naturally smashed, gazing inside. He saw no stripe, nor the fuzzy silhouette that would give away its position. Quickly Ash ducked down to look under the car, looking with frantic eyes darting back and forth quickly. Nothing. That only left one other spot...Ash stood upright slowly, approaching the open car door. He gripped his shotgun tightly, wound it up like a bat about to swing, and dashed over to the left to see-

Nothing. The seats, both driver, back, and passenger, were completely empty. The kecleon was nowhere to be found.

Ash paused a moment to consider this, reluctantly lowering his cudgel in a combination of relief and disappointment. He'd been looking forward to taking that one out, but relieved that he wouldn't have to risk his life again, or kill another pokemon by his hand. He knew it was self-defense and that he had no choice, but killing pokemon...it pained him. He hated to have to kill them. Because, with every life that ended in front of him, he couldn't help but picture a yellow shape at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding out in front of him...

Suddenly aware of how exposed he was and haunted by the eerie silence, Ash turned to retreat back to the alley when something caught his eye.

He barely had time to hear a hissing _"Viiillle!!" _and a flash of green before the grovyle that had been stalking him leaped down from its position in the shadows above him and pounced, slamming him harshly to the ground.

Everything was a blur of movement. Ash grabbed it by the wrists as it tried to scratch his throat, trying to shove it off him. The grovyle yanked its arms back several times to free itself, the last of which Ash abrutly let go to send its arms flying back at the effort, snapping his now free hands around the pokemon's neck. The grovyle gave a noise but didn't falter, grabbing Ash's wrists in response and attempting to overpower his grip. Having known his grovyle on his previous journey quite a bit before he evolved, Ash knew that grovyle didn't have particularly good upper-body strength, though the power he felt in the creature's claws was considerable, relying mostly on its agility and hard strikes to off-set its relatively weak defenses. The grovyle, however, had one thing that Ash didn't: claws, which it now dug the ends of into the man's wrists. Ash gave a yelp as they broke the skin, feeling a sharp burning sensation where its claws made contact. Now suddenly aware that it had the upper hand, the grovyle pressed in harder until Ash's grip falter, at which time it yanked his hands away, pinned them down by the wrists with one hand, and activated its Leaf Blade attack, the leaf-like growths on the side of its arms elongating and glowing a sharp green, illuminated by their own light. The creature smirked and raised its free arm into the air, ready to cut Ash's head open, sunken and bloodshot reptilian eyes flashing in sadistic delight-

Its elation wouldn't last. Having heard Ash's cry, Dawn and I exited the alley to investigate, seeing him pinned with a grovyle readying the death blow. Dawn gave a cry and covered her mouth in surprise just as I rushed forward and tackled the surprised grovyle off of Ash's chest, shoving it away towards the car and opening fire in its sorry hide.

The grovyle now gave a series of sharp hissing noises of pain as the bullets impacted all across its body in rapid succession, the metal slugs passing straight through its leathery green skin without so much as resistance. The creature waved its arms and swatted mindlessly as though fighting an invisible swarm of bees, blood flying through the air in droplets as the bullets added up, peppering its skin with holes.

Dawn snapped out of her stupor to grit her teeth in anger--how _dare _it lay its filthy claws on _her _Ash?!--before stomping up to the pokemon in question, forcing me to stop shooting for risk of hitting her. The grovyle took a staggered step backwards in its daze before Dawn grabbed it by its elongated neck, stuffed the barrel of her pistol into the roof of the creature's open mouth, and fired.

The entire top of the grovyle's head erupted into a fountain as the slug tore through it seamlessly, causing the body to stumble back until it "realized" it was dead and collapsed in a heap against the car behind it, staining its trunk red from its topless head dragged down the slick metal as the body slid down it and flopped to the ground. Bits of its skull and brains rained down briefly as the last of its gray matter tumbled out of its open skull, red pouring down the drain just inches from it at a slight incline downwards.

Dawn stood there a moment, as though shocked by what she'd done as I gruffly grabbed Ash by the arm and yanked him to his feet, shoving his fumbled shotgun into his arms, as well as an assortment of shell boxes for it. "The next time you decided to go rogue, consider yourself fucked," I snarled at him. Going off on his own had nearly gotten the stupid son of a bitch killed. As much as I hated to admit it, we needed him; the more of us there were in this mess together, the better our chances of survival. "You got that?"

Ash blinked in surprise, pausing just long enough to start feeding shells into the shotgun in question. He then stuffed the boxes into his pockets and cocked the gun, giving a satisfying _ka-chick _before smiling smugly. "Love you too, Len."

Dawn glanced back swiftly at that, relaxing when she saw the look I was giving him, as though my sour, curt expression indicating I wanted to deck the lug somehow put her at ease. She wiped away the specks of red on her face when she saw movement, turning behind her.

The kecleon Ash had come here to pursue chose the momentary lull in the action to reveal itself, its body shimmering eerily before it turned its original green, the contrast of its red stripe enunciated by the opposing colors as it leaped atop the roof of the car. Dawn let out a noise to warn the others, but it was too late--the kecleon's fist glowed a faint gold as it reared back an arm and planted a Rock Smash into the car's hood, causing the air bags to explode into the front seats and the vehicle's security alarm to go off, filling the air with its insistant, wailing siren. The kecleon flashed a grin, its sunken red eyes glimmering in amusement at our surprised cries and covering of their ears, rearing back its head and screaming a Screech into the air to add to the cocaphony of noise, its long tongue flailing at the effort it put into exerting the shrill sound.

Over the car alarm and the shotgun that went off as a result, we could hear a collective roar of a thousand other pokemon roll up the street and over us, filling the pit of my stomach with a lead weight of dread. "...fuck..."

My profanity wasn't poorly founded; as Ash and Dawn collected themselves and we subconsciously backed up the way we'd come, a flurry of shadows danced across the street across from us, covering the entire face of a building across the street with countless silhouettes of the scores of pokemon that came rushing from their numerous spots in the city to charge us in their blind rage. A connecting street funneled a second wave of pokemon to fuse with the first, the teeming horde of bodies washing down the road like a tidal wave, causing the very ground to shake beneath our feet. The sheer weight of their numbers nearly caused my jaw to drop. _Where the hell did these things all come from just now?! _Taking slow, meticulous steps backwards, I raised my pistols, snapping around to face the noise coming from behind us. Further up the road, a chain-link fence no doubt put up to direct the hordes of people and pokemon away from the major parts of the city proved to be almost completely useless; dozens of bug pokemon and other creatures capable of climbing scaled the structure without even slowing down, leaping into the road to charge at us, jaws snapping and claws slashing and countless red eyes blazing like Hell fire. Pokemon that could burrowed beneath it, popping up out of the ground like corpses rising from the dead, shoving blocks of concrete up off of them so they could scramble in and join the frey. Up above us, the sky was almost completely blotted out by the bird pokemon circling overhead like a living cyclone about to touch down, slowly dropping in altitude as they descended as if from the smoke-choked heavens themselves. We were completely and totally surrounded.

Time slowed to a crawl.

The deafening noises all around dimmed to a dull murmur, emphasizing the throbbing of my heart that threatened to explode out through my ears. I felt a bead of cold sweat trickle down my forehead as I backed up to bump into Ash and Dawn, who were both turned in directions, staring at the oncoming wall of living creatures with terrified expressions, faces the same ashen gray as the sky still visible in the sky through the eye of the living storm above us. I thought for sure that I had known what I was getting into when we came here. I'd seen tons of pokemon before; hundreds of them, all bunched together in some event or another, the exact nature of which eluding my fear-drunk mind. I had estimated before that there were maybe a couple hundred pokemon in this city total; a thousand, maybe two.

Now my estimate raised to spiraled somewhere into the _millions._

And they were all headed straight for us.

I couldn't think. I couldn't feel. I couldn't _breathe. _Time seemed to have nearly paused, every step the thousands of pokemon took now taking far too long to connect with the ground in their stampede. So many kinds of pokemon...I couldn't even begin to tell how many there were as far as species went, let alone how many were actually total. I took another step back, as though trying to step through Ash and Dawn, though I couldn't seem to get my legs to function. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. Any second now, I'd open my eyes, and I'd wake up from this horrible dream in the sick bay down at the station, drunk as a stunky and completely wasted from the hangover that had evoked such a terrble dream...any second now, this would all be over. Any second now...it was all going to be...over...

I may have been right about the last part, but it wasn't beacuse I was dreaming. This was all real.

We were going to die.

A rumbling roused my senses, along with a deafening roar that pierced through the silence that filled my head. I blinked out of my stupor, looking up slightly...

Up the road behind the wall of bodies rushing towards us, a smashing noise and the crinkle of metal signaled the suddenly airborne truck's dramatic entrance through the sky, plucking a pelliper and a honchkrow out of the air as it came down and slammed harshly on the ground, pounding the pokemon it landed on out of existence as it flew up the road, sparking and smashing as it rolled through the horde of pokemon like bowling ball and finally smashed through the chain-link fence behind us, killing the pokemon both climbing up the fence and the ones unlucky enough to be standing directly behind it. Looking back to the source of such a powerful toss, Dawn, Ash and I saw the hulking form of a massive rhyperior rise up and duck down periodically as it struck and plowed through the pokemon that dared to get in its way, its crimson, sunken eyes boring into us with hate nearly as powerful as the blows it dealt to the creatures in its way. It roared, the horn on its head spiraling loudly with the sound of a drill as a graveler was promptly punted out of its way like a four-armed soccer ball, continuing its enraged charge without so much as a second thought to the pokemon it was killing in its frenzy...

I briefly became aware of the fact that we were backing up to the right slightly, the cracking voice of Dawn pierced my daze. "W-w-what d-do we d-d-do?"

I shook my head slowly, backing up faster. The giant continued to kick and swat away pokemon that got in its way, bringing its fists down onto a machamp and marshtomp as it used its arms to propel itself forward faster, smashing both pokemon into the pavement instantly. The horde behind us was hesitating, showing the same fear as us at the gargantuan killing machine rushing straight towards them. None of them, me included, seemed capable of thought past the fear...the awe-inspiring, mind-numbing fear...

Ash finally had enough, mustering up the strength to yell _"Len!!"_

That brought me to my senses. Detaching myself from the terror, I instantly jabbed a finger across the street to the alley there, yelling "Make a break for it!" as loud as I could over the chaotic chorus all around us, finally finding the strength in my fingers to pull the triggers of my pistols as we started to move.

We ran like Cerberus itself was on our heels...which, in about 5 seconds after we died, it would be.

Suddenly finding myself in the rear of the group, I didn't look to see where I was shooting as we made a beeline to the alley in question, slipping through the entrance just as the wall of pokemon slammed shut behind us, funneling the horde into the alley we tried to escape down as the bird pokemon tried to find the best way to intercept us to our destination. The rhyperior was quick to catch up, plowing through the pokemon in front of it as it charged us, its massive club-like tail knocking a huge chunk of wall out as it did so. A handful of pokemon behind it screamed as a mountain of concrete suddenly formed on top of them, the ones directly behind them digging in their heels and coughing in the cloud of dust that materialized. Many shrieked in frustration as they realized the way was completely blocked by the wreckage.

A handful of pokemon behind us and a swarm of bird pokemon up above, we didn't pause to thank our luck as we twisted around the corner, hearing the curdled scream of a manectric foolish enough to be in front of the rhyperior as it roared, hot on our tails.

As we ran, I suddenly found a way out: a fire escape, spiraling slightly up the side of an apartment complex. "Up the fire escape!" I ordered, rushing to try to get to the metallic beacon faster.

Ash abruptly stopped and whipped around, bringing his shotgun to bear in time to blow a foot-wide hole through a primape's chest, pumping a round into the growlithe behind it as well. He was trying to hold them off for us.

I didn't notice that he hadn't followed by the time I made it up to the first platform on the fire escape, yelling over to him, "Ash, let's go, dammit!"

Ash turned to look at me a second before the rhyperior gave a trumpeting roar and rounded the corner, its fists landing on a sandshrew and a weepinbell, both pokemon simply ceasing to exist beneath its massive fists. Ash twisted around in surprise, firing a burst into the creature's hide, only to realize it's impenetrable skin bounced the bullets off as if it were a force field. The rhyperior wasn't any less pissed off by the gesture, however, grabbing a raichu as it closed the rest of the distance between them both, taking on another shotgun burst as it promptly took the squirming rodent in its hand and flung it into Ash, the electricity from the pokemon's protests pulsing through his entire body in an instant, stumbling when he tried to go forward and escape.

Dawn looked over as she put her hands on the ladder to climb, stopped, and promptly charged in, pistol close to her chest. No way she was going to let _her _Ash be killed.

Ash staggered and collapsed to his knees as the rhyperior's stomping steps threw him off balance in his daze. The rhyperior let out a snarl and raised its fists into the air to crush him-

Dawn fired, the weapon kicking into the palm of her hand vigorously as she emptied her clip into the pokemon's face. Though nothing could pierce its skin, the rhyperior was momentarily stunned as the impacting slugs slammed into its face, giving Ash enough time to scramble away towards the fire escape. The pokemon bellowed in fury and took a leaping step towards Dawn, who ducked to the side just as its fist imploded the wall to her left, momentarily caught in the falling debris.

The shudder in the ground caused Dawn to catch her foot and stumble, looking up in time to see a pidgeotto rear up its talons in the preparation to tear out her eyes-

-a split second before its headless body flopped to the ground. I screamed "Go!" as I pointed my attention upwards from the top of the fire escape, focusing on the storm of bird pokemon that were one by one descending on our position. They couldn't all take as much abuse as some of the ground-borne pokemon, but there were sure as hell more of them, and they weren't at all deterred by the rhyperior's rampaging. I fired more now, an altaria squawking a death song as it plummeted to the ground, followed quickly by pair of pidgeys I managed to take out with the same bullet(literally two birds with one stone).

Dawn scrambled up the ladder as the rhyperior collected itself, howling as it used Strength to heft up a massive piece of concrete from the wall it had just destroyed and chucked it up at us at breakneck speeds. Ash gave a yelp and nearly tumbled down the stairs as he leaped out of the way, the bracing where it hit bugling a full two feet out of shape. Dawn had to throw herself against the railing to avoid having it crush her as it tumbled down the stairs past her. Ash came up past me, firing into the air as he jumped up onto the roof of the apartment complex, which was now covered with bird pokemon bodies of every shape and size, more raining down as quickly as they swooped in to get us. Buckshot filled the air, knocking free twig-like feet and clumps of red-stained feathers.

Dawn gave a cry as the rhyperior suddenly vaulted up into the air and smashed into the side of the fire escape, bending the solid metal platform it landed on at a 60 degree angle from its weight. It slammed down a hand where she had been a moment before as she scurried up to the last platform, collapsing the stairs behind her. Mustering up the strength to leap up and reach, the rhyperior slammed a hand onto the top platform's edge and yanked down on it, causing both her and me to stumble, urging me to jump up onto the building with Dawn quick in step. Groaning beneath its weight and the concrete where its hinges fused it to the wall, the fire escape lurched violently just as the rhyperior smashed the top platform in, causing it to finally lose its final support and come unattached to the side of the building. Dawn leaped up and reached up desperately, screaming as she realized she was just an inch too short-

-a firm hand firmly clapsed around hers, holding on tight and refusing to let go. Ash and Dawn looked down as the rhyperior screamed in fury a second before it and 200 pounds of metal violently slammed to the alley four stories down, causing a massive part of the damaged wall behind it to collapse and cave in, bringing in half a ton of concrete to the mix. A plume of dust puffed up from the carnage; no movement could be seen, and the rhyperior's roars bellowed no more.

No time to celebrate, though; even if the pokemon on the ground were off our backs, we still had three thousand bird pokemon circling overhead, all of which were getting increasingly courageous in their efforts to dive-bomb us and peck our eyes out. As Ash pulled a watery-eyed Dawn up onto the roof, 4 more bird pokemon slammed onto the building and in the streets below, my bullets ripping through their feathery flesh and splintering their hollowed bones. I dove over to the side to dodge a scythe-like formation of wind, the Air Cutter cracking the cement where it landed. It was time to get out of here.

But how? We couldn't go back down to the ground, and they would no doubt be able to break in the doorway to our right that led into the building...I continued to fire and reload as fast as I could as Ash and Dawn began to fire in unison with me, loyally awaiting my orders as we emptied our weapons into the swarm above. A Gust caused my hat to blow off, and I turned to catch it just in time to watch Ash's shotgun go off. The flash from the barrel caused a colored spot to show up in my vision, remaining there as I looked back to continued shooting-

_...wait a minute. That's it!_

I ran over to the door, kicking it in as I yelled "Get inside!" to Ash and Dawn, who hurried to comply. I ducked in time to dodge a spearow as it swooped overhead, the edges of its wings glowing a bright silver as it tried to hit me with a Wing Attack. I didn't return fire, though, instead reaching to the ammunition pouch on my utility belt and grabbed a roughly egg-shaped device, whipping it out and yanking out the pin on top. _One...two..._

Overhead, two dozen bird pokemon saw their chance to dive in during the lack of fire, swooping in while preparing a myriad tableau of Peck, Drill Peck, Brave Bird, Wing Attack, Steel Wing, and Aerial Ace attacks-

_Three! _With that I promptly chucked the device into the air, turned, and ducked into the doorway behind me, yanking the handle as I dashed down the stairs.

Just as the door closed, there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder as the flash-band exploded in the midst of the bird pokemon. There was a collective screech of pain and several ensuring shudders as the blinded birds landed their attacks blindly into the building, smashing their bones on impact.

My ears rang from the noise, but I didn't stop; I ran down the stairs, ducking into the storage closet Ash and Dawn waved me into, and felt the door slam behind me.

None of us moved or said anything. We stood there in the darkness for the longest time, listening to each other pant as I licked a trickle of sweat from my lips, too stunned to do or say anything at all. Distantly I could hear the chaotic squawks of bird pokemon that were blinded and deafened by the explosive I had delivered to them, no doubt cursing me in their tongues. I could practically see their scalded, damaged red eyes rolling blindly in their head, plummeting to the earth as they collided with one another in their confusion. No doubt well over three fourths of the swarm had been affected, and judging by the way that none of them smashed open the door and yanked us outside, the ones that did escape the blast were too dazed to know where we went. The ones that saw us were completely blinded by the flash.

I don't know how long we just stood there, panting. After a while I heard the clatter of a pistol hitting the floor, followed by a dragging noise as Dawn slid down to the floor, letting out small, terrified gasps as she began to sob. My heart would have gone out to the poor girl, but at the moment, I was too stunned to do much of anything. Ash acted on my behalf; he lowered himself to the floor, and judging by the little noises of clothing shifting and the "shh" he let out, he had moved over to embrace her as she cried.

In the mean time, I finally came to my senses, feeling something hot trickling down my face. At first I thought it was blood until I felt it with my hand, which had somehow come ungloved. It was thin, watery, and salty, coming from the corners of my eyes...tears? I was crying? I willed myself to stop, but I couldn't. I slowly started to realize why I was crying, pinning it down to one simple factor: I was scared. I was outright terrifed, in fact. Half a million pokemon had just tried to kill us, I must have killed a thousand by myself, I was tired, I was shivering from the chill I didn't feel up until now, and I was fucking scared out of my mind. How I kept it together this long was nothing short of a miracle; the adrenaline and rush of combat must have had something to do with that. Now, with both fading out of my system, I felt my stone wall of composure come tumbling down, crashing in a heap like the wall with that rhyperior...the images played back in my mind, and I shuddered. How the fuck had we gotten through _that? _How in Arceus's name were we still alive? Not just alive, but _safe? _Alone in the dark, surrounded by hordes of pokemon that would like nothing more than to rip us limb from limb..._why did this happen? How? Why do they hate us? Why do they want to kill us? What did we do to make them so mad? Why? How could this happen...all those pokemon...all those people..._

The full force of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt my lip quiver as I hugged my elbows, my knees buckling beneath me. Unwilling to let my oncoming emotions show, even in the darkness, I buried my face in my hands and began crying, all of the pent up fear, confusion, and frustration coming out at once. At that moment, I wasn't Jenny Lenwes of the Viridian City Police. I wasn't a fully-trained and primed police officer in full-field gear. I was a little girl, shivering, scared and in the dark, feeling more alone now than any other time in my entire life.

I felt something warm land on my shoulder...Dawn or Ash, I didn't know, or particularly care, for that matter. I was scared, I needed comfort, and I had some right behind me. So, I scooted back and pressed into the warmth, whimpering sobs flowing as freely as the tears themselves. I don't know who was holding me, and I don't care; I needed the comfort. It was unbearable, this fear, and I couldn't take it. I needed someone, and here they were. It didn't matter that my pride would be screaming if it saw me doing this; it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Only the warmth.

And so we all sat there in the darkness, huddled together in a closet, trying to draw out as much security and comfort as we cowered in the corner, the world having long since turned upside down on us. I don't know how long we sat there in silence, listening to the last of our sobs die away...had Ash been crying, too? We were all crying? How about that, then...this wasn't at all like the pokepocalypse movies. The characters were always strong or prepared or somehow larger than life. This wasn't at all like those movies; they were scared, they were crying, and they were snuggling together for comfort in the closet of an apartment complex. There wasn't going to be a miraculous save, or a miracle to happen at the last second...no editing to hide the more terrifying scenes. This wasn't like the movies. Nothing in real life happened in the movies; everything in the movies were fake. Nothing in the movies were believable. Pokepocalypse just didn't was unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Yet the fear in my heart suggested otherwise.

* * *

**_AN_**

Wooooo!! Second ongest document I've ever writen(on fanfiction, anyway)!!! 8D Major accomplishment!!! *happy dance*

Does anyone else think that the scene with the Rhyperior looks like something out of Left 4 Dead? I originally didn't plan on it, but once I had the whole "swarm of pokemon summoned by car alarm" scene in there followed by "guy pounced by Grovyle" scene, I realized: hey, this looks like the Left 4 Dead trailer! THen I'm like "Ooh...so it REALLY looks likes the Left 4 Dead trailer. Where's the brute?" Then I'm like "OOOooooohhh! 8D"

Okay, so I went back to edit, and I saw a few words that were running on. Like, the spaces were gone. Just ignore it. I tried to fix them, and I'm fairly certain the ones I found were fixed, but I'm also fairly certain those weren't the only errors. Just ignore them, okay? I can't seem to fix them all at once. My computer's being a bitch lately. I don't know what it is about deleting the spaces! Freaking computer...

So, here we are. One chapter down, X chapters to go. Hehe. Lemme know what you think, ne? If there's anything I need to fix, tell me so I can spiff it up...unless I'm feeling lazy, in which case I'll just file it away for later. Thanks guys! Happy pokepocalypse~!


	6. Repugnant Necessities

__

**Repugnant Necessities  
**

* * *

_Dawn's POV_

* * *

_I'm so confused._

_Nothing makes sense anymore._

_Why? Why is this happening to us? Why does this have to happen? Why isn't Arceus answering our prayers? Is He not the god we thought He is? Did He plan all of this? Why has He forsaken us? What did we do? Why does this have to happen? Why do people have to die like this? Why do we have to suffer like we have?_

_Why?_

...I don't know how long I just sat there. Cowering in the dark, my mind spinning, completely alone...well, no...I guess that's not right. I wasn't alone. I had my friends. Len was awesome...she kicked some serious ass. She was scared, just like we were, but that's okay; it's not a bad thing to be scared. She fought and fought, even when she was scared down in the streets, even though she was undoubtedly as scared as she seemed to be now; I'd put my hand on her shoulder, and she pressed up against me like I was her only lifeline. But that's okay. All this fighting while she's scared just means that she's a compassionate, brave person willing to fight for people she cares about, even though she'd only known us for a little while. She must have a big heart, to fight like she did for us. Just like Ash.

_...Ash..._

Ash...I'm so glad...I'm so glad I have him. I have no idea what I'd do without him right now. My Ash. My guardian angel. Always there for me, even when we were just kids...he was always rooting for me, even when he had genuinely no what I was doing or what I was supposed to do. Like when I first started accompanying him and he stayed to watch my contests. He didn't know the first thing about coordinating, and didn't really show an interest for it, but that never stopped him from coming to cheer for me. Then he started getting into it a bit more and we entered together...I'd never had so much fun in a contest battle before. He's just got this quality about him to make things so much more enjoyable, make every moment worth so much more...what is it about him that makes him so lovable? His eyes? I know _I _certainly love them...his compassion? His big heart? His comical cluelessness at times that makes everyone laugh? I don't know. Maybe it's everything. Maybe it's just because he's Ash. I love that big oaf...he's such a cubonehead, but he's so lovable, you can't help but love him. He's such a lovable boy. For all the happiness he brings everyone, he deserves so much. Nothing like what he's been through these last few years. Nothing at all like what's going on now.

Not me. _Certainly_ not me.

I left him behind in his most tender moment of living. Here I was, huddling up against him for comfort, and all I ever did to him was leave him for dead in his grief while I went out to pursue the dreams that didn't even work out anyway. What kind of friend abandoned their friends in such a moment of hardship? What kind of person did that make me? I had to be a terrible friend; if Ash wasn't so darn loving and clueless, he'd realize what a horrible person I was and would want nothing to do with me, turning his back on me when I needed him, just like I did with him. His mother died, and I moved all the way across the world to live my own life...I was so selfish. How could I say that I loved him after I did something so terrible to him? I hurt him. I don't doubt he suffered like he did because no one was there to help him, even if it was him that shooed them away. It was my fault he hurt. It was my fault his life turned out like it did. It was my fault...I hurt him...I didn't deserve him...

"Dawn?"

Ash's voice was soft, but I jumped anyway, hands clinging on his shirt a bit tighter. I could still feel his arm around me, hugging me up against his side...we'd been like this for a while. I don't know how long, though; it was hard to tell time in the darkness and my thoughts, but I guessed it had been a while, since Len was breathing softly next to me...probably asleep. Good...she was so brave. She deserved some rest, after all that she'd done for us. We were alive because of her.

"Dawn?" Ash prompted me again, since I hadn't answered him. I could feel his gorgeous blue eyes probing the dark space next to him where I was presumably sitting; it was too dark to see a hand an inch in front of his face. "Are you okay? You're shaking."

Blinking, I reached up to dab my eyes, feeling moisture...I hadn't realized I was crying. "I'm okay," I lied. I didn't want to tell him how guilty I was. It felt like I was the one responsible for ruining his life, for making things turn out like they did...it was all my fault... "I-I'm just....cold."

I wasn't sure if Ash could tell I was lying or if he was just so...Ash...either way, his concern didn't ebb. I didn't feel any relaxing in his form. "Well...you want to sit on my lap? I can put my vest around both of us, so it'll be a lot warmer."

Oh, Ash. Always so damn clueless. Did he not realize how awkward that could be? Or maybe he did, and he just didn't care, his worry for my well-being outweighing his need to maintain a sense of manliness--men didn't offer to huddle together for warmth every day, so I'd heard. They apparently are too "tough" for that. I'm so glad Ash didn't turn out like that. Even though the offer made me blush, my first impulse to hastily decline and try to talk it down that I was fine, something stayed my tongue and kept me from refusing. Well, he didn't_ seem _to have a problem with it, and I _was _a little chilly...my nightgown was a little more covered with the blue jacket I'd picked out earlier, but my legs were still clearly exposed, and it was kinda cold...plus, I could always use the comfort, so why not? It could be nice to spend a little quality time with the big sweetheart. "Um...okay." Carefully feeling about his form, I wearily crawled up over his legs and brought myself onto his lap as he unbuttoned his vest, curling my legs up as I slipped my arms around his waist. I could feel his arms wrap around me as he brought the flaps of his vest up over me, managing to button it up despite the tightness of which the buttons pulled on the fabric. They clearly weren't designed for two people to share.

Ash settled back a bit, pulling his arms through his vest so he could put them around my shoulders, holding me snugly against him. "How's this?" he asked, hopeful that he'd been of some help. "Better?"

I found myself smiling, pressing myself up against his warm, sturdy form. I never realized how broad and muscular his chest was...it must have been from all those years of traveling. He was so strong...the same arms that could fling me around the room held me with the gentle warmth of his beautiful eyes... "Yes...wonderful..." I blinked in surprise, taken aback by the dreaminess of my voice. Since when did I get so pensive? Ash seemed content with the pleased sound my voice carried, now rubbing my back a bit, either to comfort me or warm me from the friction. Either way, it felt nice, and I let out a wordless noise of contentment, burying my head into the crook of his neck. His bare skin was so warm...

Ash chuckled softly, continuing to rub my back in long, gentle stokes, up and down, from the base of my neck to my waist as far down as he dared to reach...I don't think he'd seen me act like this before, but it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. I think he thought it was pretty cute. "Feeling better?" he asked softly, murmuring into my ear.

The feeling of his breath on my neck sent shivers up my spine. It felt...I can't even begin to describe it. It was wonderful. I let out another cooing noise of approval, nodding a bit, nuzzling into his neck as a result. "Don't let go."

I could practically see Ash's eyebrow arch, getting that smug smile on his face that I wasn't sure I'd rather sock him or hug him for. "What's in it for me?"

"You get to have a girl on your lap, sharing your clothes, huddled up against you in the dark," I countered, smirking. "I _also _won't be forced to place a foot in your groin."

"Hm." Ash acted coy, but I could feel him wince slightly at the image I'd put in his head, reflexively bringing his legs a bit closer together to shield said area slightly. "A tempting offer...I'll certainly consider it."

"A pleasure doing business with you," I quipped. We both chuckled, my shoulders shifting slightly as his chest rose and fell with his laughs. It was always pretty fun when we got to go with our little antics. Eventually, though, my amused grin faded away, leaving me a bit more sober. "...seriously...don't let go. Please. I need you right now."

Ash seemed just as surprised as I was that something like that had come out of my mouth. Whatever he thought, though, his arms wrapped around my shoulders a bit more snugly, his hand running up and down my spine in a soothing manner. "I won't, I promise. I've got you. I'll never leave you."

Those were exactly the words I needed to hear. With the world coming unglued all around us, chaos ensuring and reversing everything I'd ever come to know, the knowledge that I could always rely on him and have a pair of warm arms to snuggle up in made me feel...just...words can't describe the feeling. In my most helpless, desperate time, he was there to hold me and tell me everything was going to be alright. He truly did care. It brought a tear to my eye as I hugged him tighter. I don't think he realized how loved he made me feel right then. "Thank you, Ash..."

"No problem, Dawn." He rested his head on mine now, relaxing into me. "Let's go ahead and get some rest, alright? I'm feeling pretty worn out."

"Okay..." As if on cue, the exhaustion from the lack of sleep and the exertion from the day hit me all at once, instantly making my eyelids sag. The comfortable warmth suddenly felt seductively enticing, luring me towards sleep like an old woman promising a child with candy. I could feel the grogginess closing in, sapping my energy and sucking away my physical awareness... "Hey Ash?"

"Hm?" he replied, seeming just as tired as me.

"I'm glad I have you."

Ash smiled, planting a kiss on top of my head. I think he meant it in a more nurturing way than an affectionate way, but it didn't feel any less wonderful. "I'm always going to be here for you, Dawn. Just close your eyes for me, alright? I'm not going anywhere."

Oh my Arceus, that made me....just...like...so happy. So loved. If I wasn't so sleepy, I would have blurted out every meaningful thing I could come up with, not even interested in whether or not it was embarassing or awkward. I wanted to tell him how good he made me feel, how happy I was to have him with me, how much I cared about him, how sweet he was...I wanted to let it all out. I wanted to tell him everything.

Before I could, though, sleep closed in and I was swept away from the physical awareness, plunged into a pleasant unconsciousness in his arms.

It was the best sleep I'd ever had.

* * *

_Ash's POV_

* * *

Have you ever fallen asleep when you were sick or something? Then you ended up having that weird dream with the bizarre, exotic colors flashing around and just really make you feel like you're tripping on some drug-high? My sleep was kind of like that. I'd had a few exhausted sleeps before a few years back, when I had gone days on end in extensive traveling and training where I couldn't let myself have any sleep, and it was something like this, too. It's not _pleasant, _per se, but it's not a bad feeling, either. The sleep undoubtedly felt good. The dream was just....trippy. It felt like I was on acid or something. I could distantly feel Dawn curled up against me, getting some much-needed rest...Dawn. Poor Dawn. She wasn't the most courageous or stout-hearted girl in the world, and this whole thing just had to absolutely terrify her. Even Len was scared. Hell, _I _was scared; how couldn't I be, with all these killer pokemon running around? I had to be strong, though, for all our sakes. I had to stay strong. If nothing else, then for Dawn. She needed me. I had to be there for her. She needed me. Years of solitude, brought on by my shoving my friends away to be by myself....what kind of friend did that make me? She had to be heartbroken. She was so happy to just talk to me when we first started calling...I had to have hurt her. Someone as sweet as Dawn? Me? Hurting her? That's...just...unforgivable. Unspeakable. Me and my angst-ridden big mouth, pushing everyone away...I don't even know what happened to everyone else. They all disappeared when I did. I wanted to tell them that I was sorry and that I truly valued our friendship, but they were gone, and with the world going to hell, there wasn't any chance of me telling them. I couldn't tell them what they meant to me. Dawn was all I had left. She pulled me up out of the hole, gave me a real life, showed me happiness...she meant the world to me. And there was no way I was going to let anything happen to her.

I jerked awake, blinking in the dark to adjust my eyes. Len was silent, probably still dozing. Dawn was fast asleep, breathing softly into my neck...so cute. Putting my vest around her had been a means of helping her stay warm...but it had also filled the need to be close to her. Dawn...I don't know what it is about her. I needed her, though; I needed her to be closer, to be able to put my arms around her, hug her tight, keep her safe...maybe it was a deep level of friendship that came out of having death looming around every corner that made me feel that way. Maybe it was the inner human wanting to keep the one precious to me safe. Maybe it was my need for affection from her...it always felt good when she let me know I was doing something right. I fuck up so much, it's not even funny; I know absolutely nothing about women. Or peope in general, for that matter. It was good to know I had at least _some _competence as a friend. I was going to be there for her no matter what, like I should have been before everyone in my life disappeared. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

Not finding the source of my disturbance, I assumed it had just been something in my dream and decided to go back to sleep. I laid my head back down on Dawn's head, nestling down a bit-

_Snap._

My eyes sprang open. I could feel Dawn tense up, being disturbed by the noise as well. I heard Len's breath hitch; I guess she wasn't asleep after all. There was a faint, delicate clattering noise as she got her pistols ready. Remembering my shotgun, I put an arm out of my vest to grab it, the other arm protectively clutching Dawn as I listened...

Outside the door, there was a faint crackling and popping that sounded like flames, plus a light huffing here and there that I guessed was something breathing. There were now hard steps as something came down the stairs just outside our door, meandering down before stomping onto the floor, trudging to the doorway just to the right and off to the room beyond, apparently quite bored, judging by the way it grumbled incoherently to itself. As it walked off, the crackling became much more faint, indicating the flames were following it. If I had to guess, I'd say a charmeleon or charmander, based on the claws that I heard clacking on the stairs.

There was a click as Len turned on her flashlight, shining it at us to see if we were ready. I unbuttoned my vest to let Dawn free, who searched around a moment to find her discarded pistol. I got my shotgun ready. Len gave us an urgent look, flicking her head towards the doorway, signaling that we should go. I nodded, though Dawn didn't seem too eager to get moving. I patted her shoulder reassuringly; she leaned into my touch for comfort.

Len reached out and, after clicking off her light, slowly, carefully, began to turn the knob. It felt like an eternity before the door began to slowly open, revealing the stairway stretching up to the roof we'd had our little showdown on. The door at the top was open, a pit of black in place of where the sky would be. It was night; we must have been sleeping for quite some time. It had to be midnight, by the looks of it, although I'm sure the decrepit condition of the city and the smoke blocking out the moon didn't add to the already deplorable light conditions. There was light coming from the other room, however, indicating that it had either never been turned off before the inhabitants of the apartment headed for the hills, or that something had turned them on. Not a good sign.

Helping Dawn to her feet, I followed Len out of the closet with my shotgun at the ready, peeking around her police hat to observe the scenery. The room beyond was the apartment, the charmeleon from before sticking its head into the fridge while carelessly rummaging through its contents, shoving things deemed inedible out of the way and knocking things to the floor. There was the body of a woman laying sprawled out across the kitchen floor, her skin ashen gray and eyes staring straight up at the ceiling, limbs stiff with rigor mortis. Judging by the gash across her neck and the amount of dried blood on the floor, I'd say her throat was slit. The room itself was a mess; the counter had blood splashed across it, several items being soiled as a result. A few boxes of some food stuff or another were scattered haphazardly about the floor, giving the impression that there'd been a struggle before the person met their untimely demise.

Len motioned for me to wait, creeping forward towards the charmeleon, who was unaware of our presence, too consumed in raiding the fridge to notice us. One hand placed the gun being held in its holster, now reaching for the combat knife on her hip, silently sliding the blade out of its sheath. She took careful, slow steps forward, crouching down as she neared the pokemon as to not let it become aware of her shadow, reaching forward. A pickle jar was flung aside, causing the glass to shatter, spilling the rancid juices out across the floor. Len froze for a moment, watching the pokemon carry on with its business, content that she was still undetected before continuing, the feet between them seeming to have turned to miles.

Finally, Len stopped in her advancing, now less than an inch behind the bipedal reptile. Careful to stand out of reach of its flicking tail, she reached forward with the knife, hovering a centimeter past its flesh, and held it there, waiting for...something. I don't know nearly enough about fighting to know what she was thinking or planning, but if it was me, I would have just slashed him and gotten it over with.

The charmeleon paused to examine a bag of lunch meat in its hand, sniffing the interior to assure that its contents weren't rancid. It reached up to scratch and itch on its neck, blinking, feeling something cold and slender against its skin, inadvertently pressing the blade against its neck-

Len flicked her wrist and brought the blade through its flesh, parting the tender skin of its underbelly and slashing the jugular and windpipe like tissue paper, backing away quickly to avoid being burned by its tail. The creature let out a silent scream and clutched its throat as blood now sprayed freely out of the gash, splattering the fridge with red, gasping for the air that refused to enter its lungs. It staggered and stumbled back, tripping over the corpse in the center of the room and slamming onto its back, continuing to gasp and scream in total silence, only letting out a faint hissing noise out of the wound in its throat. It kicked its legs wildly, tail thrashing and charring the places it dragged across black with the fire on the tip, life quickly fading. The charmeleon's sunken, blazing red eyes locked on Len behind it, face contorting in fury despite the fact that it was rapidly dying, hellish rage consuming its thoughts. One hand clutched its throat as it bled out, the other clawing the air for Len's feet, who stepped back out of the pokemon's reach in response, waiting patiently for the creature to die.

Eventually, the reptile's thrashings ceased as the blood spraying out of its neck reducing to a faint trickle, the floor around it stained a fresh coating of red. Its sunken eyes dimmed as the last of its dwindling life energies vaporized, leaving behind a twitching corpse. The flame on the end of its tail sputtered, flickered twice, and went out, signaling that the pokemon was well and truly dead.

I felt queasy from the sight, glad that Dawn hadn't decided to peek out and look--she knew what Len was doing. I'd never seen a pokemon's throat cut before, and it was...disturbing. To say the least. I could feel a film of bitter bile in the back of my throat...

Len, however, didn't seem to mind in the least, remaining cold and devoid of expression as she calmly wiped her knife of blood, putting it away as she pulled her other pistol out, creeping out to the living room to continue clearing the area. There was a meditite sprawled out in the reclining chair of the living room, facing a TV that showed only a screen full of static. Len promptly shot the monkey-like pokemon in the head, abruptly ending its dream and life in one shot, nearly splitting its head in half from the force of the 12mm slug plowing through its skull. The harsh pop of the gun, while quite quieter than other guns of its power, was still enough to draw attention, a nidorina clamoring out of the bathroom to come and investigate. It barely had time to widen its sunken eyes in surprise before a bullet struck its head and erupted violently out the back, splattering the wall with pokemon brains and bits of skull. The Officer Jenny then continued on where it had come, going around the corner to continue clearing the floor. There were a pair of gunshots until silence ensured, implying that whatever she'd found was no longer able to be found.

While she went about with this, I guided Dawn out by the hand, both of us avoiding the sights of the butchered pokemon as we hurried past them. I stopped to look outside, peering out the window to the street below. A car--probably the one that the rhyperior threw--was flipped upside down in the street, flames idly seeping out of its belly components, streaming a small plume of black smoke into the air as it persistantly burned away at the vehicle's running fluids. I saw a small shape wander by in the orange light, but I couldn't see much else. The streets were filled with the bodies of the pokemon killed from earlier, forming a path starting from where the car had landed and ending where it now sat, dried blood all around the road of crushed, mangled corpses. There didn't seem to be much activity right now, most of the pokemon either asleep or simply roaming around mindlessly, on the lookout for something to kill that wasn't one of them. Good; combine this with the cloak of darkness, and we might have a good chance of getting out of Pewter City. The only downside was that there were nocturnal pokemon to look out for...

Len now returned, wiping a splatter of blood from her temple; just a hunch that the blood wasn't hers. "Okay," she said, voice barely above a hoarse whisper. "So. We need to find a safe route to route 3 so we can get the hell out of this city. Either of you know the area?"

"A little bit," I answered, tone matching hers. "I used to travel through here when I was on my pokemon journey a few years back."

"Fair enough. Okay...where do we go from here to get to the local Pokemon Center?"

I thought a moment, going back into my mind to retrieve the information. _Let's see...so if the Police Station is back there, and we headed north into the civilian area, then...hm... _"Okay, the Pokemon center's near the center of town, so we're going to want to go..." I raised a finger into the air, then pointed it into the direction I envisioned. "...that way. The entrance to route 3 will be further that way, a little bit to the south. We can follow the roads right to it."

"I don't think that's a very good idea," Dawn piped up, peering out the window into the dark nervously. "There are bound to be lots of night pokemon stalking around. The hoothoot and noctowl alone will be able to see like it's day out."

Len nodded in agreement. "She's right. Plus, I don't know about you, but I really, _really_ don't want to have a rerun of our little episode earlier in the dark. Remember how many of those things there were out there? There have to be thousands in the streets. We need a better way."

I shuddered at the image of the wall of pokemon headed for us, the sky completely blotted out by all the bird pokemon. "O-okay, uh...well, what about the alleys? Those worked pretty well for us before, right?"

Len's lip curled. "Yeah. If you count getting ambushed by houndour and almost getting mauled by a swarm as 'working pretty well.'" She wandered over to Dawn, looking out the window along with her. "These things aren't particularly organized, but pokemon aren't stupid. Have you noticed how many there are that aren't naturally found around here? That's because they're _trained _pokemon. They know how to fight; how to work a situation in their favor. They're onto us. They probably have traps littered all around here, waiting for us to come out and run right into them. This whole area's probably baited."

I shook my head, not liking the sounds of it. If they were onto us, what else could we do? Thinking back to that kecleon, there could be any number of eyes trained on every entrance and exit on this very building at any given moment. I felt like a rattata staring out of its mouse hole, wanting to leave, but knowing that dozens of persian were waiting for me. "So what do we do?"

"Get creative," Len replied, turning to face me. "You're a trainer, right? You had to be a pretty good strategist, if you were any good. Think about it; all the available routes are blocked. The alleys are traps, and the streets are a hunting ground for those things. The convenient methods of getting around the city are gone. So, what do we do? How do we sneak past them?"

I paused a moment, feeling Dawn's pleading eyes boring into me. Ugh, those opal eyes of hers...I can't help myself. She just felt so innocent and helpless to me when she looked at me like that. She has to know that; she's won more than her share of arguments with that damn look, she just has to know how it works on me. I don't think she realized it, though; she always seemed to look like that when she wasn't sure what to do. Ugh, I can't stand it! It feels like I'm her only hope and that I can't afford to let her down! "W-well, uh..." I thought now, focusing on the dead TV to avoid Dawn's eyes. _Streets are gone, alleys are traps...we can't go rooftop to rooftop, because the night pokemon in the air might see us...hm. What else is there? _"The subways?" I offered. "They're not too full, and they wouldn't have put them in their equations yet. They'd expect us to dash out and make a break for it."

Len nodded thoughtfully, but Dawn shook her head. "That won't work, Ash. Think about how many people must have been down there when they were trying to escape; it must be a bloodbath by now. Plus, the trains aren't working, so we'd have to go all the way down those tunnels in the dark until we got to the next station, which could be miles from here. Think about how many pokemon must be hunkered down in those tunnels."

Now it was Len's turn to disapprove. "She's right; the subways are out. We'd be better off trying to walk it from here."

I scratched my head. "Well...we could always try the sewers. Those are pretty out of the way, and they lead all around the city. We could pop right out in front of the Pokemon Center in no time."

Dawn's lip curled in disgust. "Ew, the _sewers? _It's got to be filthy! It's going to be dark...a-and think about all the raticate and grimer that must be down there!"

Len didn't seem joyfully enthused by the idea, but she didn't seem off-put by it, either. "It could work. They won't be focusing on blocking the sewers off; hardly anyone would be desperate enough to go down there. The pokemon that live down there might have even gone topside to kill off everyone up here. It could be a good route."

"Yeah," I said, "but while we're down there, you think we should just head to route 3 while we're at it? There's bound to be a manhole on the edge of town somewhere."

"True, but the Pokemon Center could have some supplies we could use. It's a pokemon hospital, after all, and not all the ones that come in there can just be slotted into the healing machine. They have to stock their ER and whatnot. Plus, the pokemon probably won't have that area as closed off as this one. We made a pretty big fuss down here; they probably think that closing us off on the surface around here will be enough. It might be safe enough to walk the rest of the way. That, and I don't want to spend the rest of the night in a dank, fetid sewer."

"Point."

Dawn looked between us incredulously, wearing a horrified expression. "Y-you can't be seriously considering this! It's nasty down there! All the sludge, and the....yuck...a-and the grimer! It's going to be _disgusting!"_

"I'd rather be dirty and alive than clean and fucked," Len countered nonchalantly. "We can either go down in the sewers where it might be safe, or we can stay nice and dry up here and be torn apart by pokemon. Your choice, Dawn: dirty or dead?"

Dawn grimaced, hoping that the question was rhetorical. I wasn't particularly fond of the notion, either, but what choice did we have? It wasn't like we could just jump into one of the hundreds of cars littering the streets; they would get us where we needed to go, but think about how much noise it would make; every pokemon in the city would come running, and they might have found something _bigger _than a rhyperior! I was with Len; the sewers it was. "Works for me."

Dawn rolled her eyes, glancing over at the stairs absently. "That's just because you offered it."

I huffed, puffing my cheeks in a pout. "Is not!"

"Is t-"

A gunshot abruptly ended our argument, snapping to look at the source. Len was now pointing one gun at the stairs, a broken paras body splattered across the floor, both mushrooms on its back broken off from the force of the bullet. Len looked over at us sharply, indicating that we should keep our mouths shut if we knew what was good for us; it was starting to attract pokemon. "Which way to the Pokemon Center?"

I gulped, remembering to keep my voice down when I replied "That way," pointing to indicate.

Len nodded, then looked to each of us, flicking her chin at the stairs, stepping past the paras corpse as she went downstairs. Pale-faced and quite nervous, I went to follow, only to have Dawn grab my hand. That pleading look...dammit, she knows I can't say no to that. But this isn't in our play-fights; she really needed me. I couldn't say no even if I wanted to, which I didn't. I smiled softly for her. "Just stay close to me, and I'll keep you safe, okay?"

Dawn squeezed my hand and nodded, clinging closely to me as we followed Len down the stairs, careful to keep our steps quiet(which was almost impossible, because of the fucking creaking wood).

Len stopped at the bottom, pausing a moment before ducking around the corner to the right, guns at the ready. It was clear, so she continued on, us close in step. The hallway was empty; there were two doorways, the first of which being a bedroom, the TV blaring out a loud ringing noise as the "technical difficulties" channel to some news station played through the speakers. I poked my head in to examine the area. While I didn't see any pokemon, there was a corpse of a girl laying out across the bed, the shimmer of a pistol catching my eye...then I noticed that it was splashed with blood, still a few inches away from the girl's hand. I shook my head, feeling a pang of remorse at the sight. The poor girl couldn't be any more than 15, laying across her bed in her pink pajamas...a damn shame. She was just a child. I remember when I was that age...

Len hesitated at the doorway, glancing into the room a moment before entering, headed towards the bed. She looked over the girl, shook her head in sorrow, and carefully retrieved the gun next to her body. She came back to us and quietly closed the door out of respect, closing her eyes in a brief moment of mourning before holstering the weapon and continuing on, business as usual. We were going to need all the weapons we could get. Dawn had a confused but grim expression as we passed the door, not asking what it was we saw; I guess she just thought it was better that she never know.

The second door farther down was a bathroom, which was empty, apart from a completely ravaged body in the bathtub, the water still inside and stained crimson from the presence of the bleeding corpse. I winced at the sight but continued on, following Len to the room to our right, which was the living room to the apartment on this floor. The lights on in the kitchen were all that illuminated this floor, giving just enough illumination to show a skitty and a slakoth both sitting on the couch, sleeping peacefully. Len poked her head into the bathroom to see the sight for herself, while I took a step towards the two sleeping pokemon...and hesitated. Slakoths...no, not so much, but the skitty? Honestly? In my travels as a pokemon trainer, I knew a girl named May who had a skitty herself, and I'd become quite familiar with the pokemon, seeing as how a lot of the neighbors in Pallet Town had taken a liking to the pokemon and got their own as a pet. Not only was I familiar with the their presence, but the way it was curled up on the couch, ears twitching every so often, tail curled up over its face...their eyes are usually closed, so I couldn't tell if it was rabid or not. The odds of it not being ravenous were unlikely, considering that all the pokemon in the city seemed to be affected, but that wans't enough to keep me from holding my finger just above the trigger of my shotgun. Sound asleep, breathing softly, letting out a dreamy mew in response to something in its dream...so innocent. So adorable. Did we really have to kill such a pretty creature? Something with which we had no quarrel and, from the looks of it, couldn't hurt a fly?

When Len came back from the grizzly bathroom, I gave her a pleading look, silently asking whether or not we had to do it. She glanced over to the couch, frowned, and knew exactly what I was hesitating for. She gave me a look that seemed oddly apologetic, sighing to herself, then looked back to the two pokemon. "...we'll give them a chance," she whispered, causing me to sigh in relief. It was very unlikely the pokemon was sane, but...I wanted to know for sure. I didn't want to have to live with the guilt of killing an innocent pokemon.

Len stepped forward into the room, stepping softly towards the slakoth and skitty, who hadn't moved at all in their slumber. She stood over them both, watching them carefully, searching for...what? Signs that they were crazy? Signs that they were _normal?_ I couldn't tell the difference between that skitty and the skitty's I'd seen previously...and this worried me. I was seriously beginning to wonder about the pokemon themselves; none of them, apart from their crazed anger when they saw us and their sunken, bloodshot eyes, bore any difference from the sane pokemon previously encountered. The pokemon didn't at all seem adversely affected, apart from hating humans and their eyes being all messed up. What was it that plagued them? Were they sick with some kind of illness? Had that headache-thing driven them mad? Did they even realize what they were doing was horribly wrong? Or were the pokemon even in control anymore?

Len raised one of her guns, pointing it at the slakoth. She reached forward with it carefully, then tapped the slakoth on the side of the head with it, backing up a bit. The pokemon didn't move right away, though I could tell it was awake; it just had to get its metabolism up a bit so it could move, its eyelids creaking open ever so slowly to reveal the bloodshot, sunken eyes beneath. Len frowned, knowing there was no choice. Before the pokemon could fully mobilize, the Officer Jenny pointed the gun at the pokemon's head, aimed briefly, and fired. A resounding pop and a splatter of hot slakoth blood signified that the pokemon's judgment had been delivered.

The skitty suddenly bolted awake, litterally leaping a foot into the air before landing on its paws again, staring in shock through its closed eyelids, like a baby that had yet to open its eyes for the first time. Because its eyes never opened, Len couldn't determine if it was insane or not, hence why she prompted it with talk. "Hey," she said, softly but sternly. "I don't want to, but if you don't let us go, I'm going to have to shoot you. Please don't make me do that."

The skitty paused, stunned expression slowly melting away as it considered what she said. For a moment, relief washed over me. I couldn't believe it; it really was just a normal skitty...and to think that we'd almost killed it! Thank Arceus. _Thank Arceus _we didn't jump in, guns blazing, or we would have murdered a little skitty that had done nothing more than fall asleep on the couch-

Suddenly the skitty gave a shrieking hiss, face contorting in rage as it arched its back, claws sprouting out of the ends of its toes. Its tail thrashed furiously, and I could practically see the ember glow of its eyes blazing beneath its eyelids...

Len raised her gun without a second thought, and my eyes snapped shut when she fired, my stomach churning at the sound of a body hitting the floor. Just a skitty...a cute, innocent little skitty, driven mad by some unknown ailment, now butchered out of necessity for survival...it broke my heart to think about. Why did these creatures all have to die? Why did they want to kill us? All I'd ever done all my life was live beside pokemon, growing strong with them, forming bonds that I couldn't hope to replicate or replace...was all of it for nothing? Did my love for their kind mean anything? Did anything mean _anything _anymore?

_What kind of world has our world turned into?_

"...Ash?"

My eyes opened, instantly averting from a solemn-looking Len to the Dawn next to me, holding my hand, gazing up at me worriedly. Her ice-blue eyes were filled with worry, tinted only slightly by the ever-present fear we were all feeling, openly concerned for me. "Are you okay?" she asked me.

I closed my eyes again, allowing myself a slow, deep breath before exhaling and opening my eyes again. "...I just wish they'd tell us why."

Dawn had a look of confusion for only an instant, quickly knowing what I wished they would tell us, and who "they" were. She nodded in agreement, looking down to our conjoined hands. "Me, too," she muttered softly, voice containing large amounts of sorrow and traces of pity. Pity for me or for the pokemon? It didn't even matter; it wasn't going to change anything. None of it mattered anymore...

We stood there in silence a bit longer before I started off towards the other room, guiding Dawn by the hand to stand before Len, waiting for instructions..or some kind of solace. I don't know which. Len looked to Dawn, then looked at me...and turned, now headed for the kitchen with guns ready, going about regular business as though nothing had happened. As though nothing could be more natural. Briefly I couldn't help but wonder about what kind of extremes this woman must be going to to live with what she was doing.

Or was she even trying anymore?

Dawn again prompted me to continue, following after Len, who was carefully lowering a table down to clear the makeshift barricade the people here must have put in place to keep the pokemon out(just a hunch, but I don't think it worked too well for them). Down the stairwell there were a large pile of garbage bags combined with several bodies sprawled out across the walkway, all of which were cut open and heavily damaged; I couldn't tell whether a few of them were male or female, though it would be better that I not figure it out. The room looked sort of like a laundry room, with a few washers and driers over against the far wall, which a large truck had burst through, headlights blaring into us as if we were being interrogated by it. Dawn looked hesitant as Len stepped past the bodies, having to step onto one of them to get across. I paused, then grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up a bit, summoning a surprised squeak as I carried her past the bodies to the other side, placing her back on her feet when we were across. She blushed a bit, muttering her thanks. I don't get why she blushed, but whatever.

We had to go around to the other side now to find the door, past rooms with floors completely covered with bodies; whole ones, partial ones, dismembered ones, some with half their skin...so much blood. Congealed and dried gore caked the floor, filling in the spaces between all of the decrepit corpses. The stench was enough to make me gag; what the hell _happened _here? Not that I actually wanted to know. As far as this kind of brutality went, ignorance was bliss. I probably knew too much already.

Carefully stepping between the bodies, Len led us forward, signaling for us to halt when we made it to the door. We stopped, watching Len as she stood by and waited, listening...her hand drifted back in front of her, gun pointed forward, stepping towards the doorway. She hovered outside the doorway for a brief moment before jumping out into the alley, one gun pointed either way for whatever was waiting for us-

A pair of vines suddenly dropped down from above--the one direction Len wasn't looking--and coiled around her shoulders and yanked her up, visibly straining under her weight. She let out a cry of surprise as she was hefted into the air, legs flailing in some kind of attempt to free herself. Dawn and I were over in an instant, grabbing her legs and pulling down, trying to find the source of the attacker. Up above in one of the windows, an ivysaur scowled down at us, red sunken eyes pounding down at us, as if its hate alone would be enough to deter us.

As if; under the combined efforts of Dawn and I, Len was pulled back down to the ground, hands firmly grappling the doorway we'd come out of so she couldn't be hefted back up. Remembering some of my experiences with my old bulbasaur back home, I pointed my shotgun at the creature's vines, pulled the trigger, and blew the vine clean in half. The ivysaur howled in pain as blood spewed out of the end of its vine like a hose, quickly uncoiling the other from Len to grip the other one in agony. Dawn fired twice, missing once and removing the creature's face with the second shot, silencing it instantly and sending it flying back into the room it was sticking out of.

Len yanked the severed vine from her shoulder, tossing it to the ground, warily looking up at the red-stained window. I scratched my head for a moment; hadn't we just been up there?

Len nodded to us both, moving on before either of us could reply. We just continued on, not wanting to delay with petty things such as "thank you" or whatever. The less talking, the better. Besides, we both knew she appreciated it. At least, I knew she did, anyway; Dawn seemed a bit off-put by her silence.

We barely got moving by the time more pokemon arrived, the flailing form of a rabid kanghaskan throwing itself forward, the limp body of the young in it's pouch dangling limply out of the pokemon's pouch. Len fired a trio of shots, striking it in the chest each time, but it kept coming, thrashing wildly as though it was so enraged it simply couldn't feel the bullets slamming into it's hide. Dawn shot now as well, but the pistols seemed to have no affect; a shotgun blast from me, blowing a hole in it's stomach and wiping it's pouch and dead baby out of existence, however, was enough to make it stumble and perhaps reminded the pokemon why charging a group of people armed with guns was a very bad idea. It let out a gurgling moan as it sank to it's knees, giving Len a perfect view of it's head. One 12mm slug smashing through the bony plate on it's head was enough to put the Parent pokemon down for good.

Len didn't even stop to reload her pistols, leading us on down the alley towards the street we hadn't completely trashed beforehand. _She was right,_ I realized, glancing back briefly to Dawn, who had yet to release my hand. _The pokemon _are_ onto us. We better get off the streets before we end up getting swarmed again!_

Briskly Len led the way out to the street, guns pointing and flashlight darting from shadow to shadow, searching for the pokemon we all knew were lying in wait. It wasn't much--a machop and a groggy-looking mightyena, which briefly reminded me of the trainer from Pallet Town and his mightyena, Fang. I distantly wondered what became of the boy when Len pointed her flashlight at a manhole in the center of the street, yanking the lid aside with a heavy metal grinding sound, wincing at the harshness of the noise. We needed to get out of here before anything came to investigate; we didn't have a choice now.

That didn't, however, make me any more eager to enter that pitch-black hole in the ground than before. The perfect sphere in the pavement was consumed by a vast blackness that I don't think even the most powerful of night vision could penetrate, seeming to stretch down into the very bowels of Hell itself; it could very well have, considering that the pit seemed to stretch on into oblivion and back. A foul stench permeated my nostrils, even as I stood over the hole, not anywhere short of three feet away. It reeked of raw sewage and decrepit excretions, the likes of which I didn't even want to imagine. Has anyone ever been into a sewer before? Well, I have, once upon a time. It's where I found my enthusiastic pokemon friend Muk. It's _also _where I swore that I would never, ever, _ever _enter such a vile, rank, disgusting place so long as I drew breath or otherwise, so help me Arceus. I wasn't any too eager to break that promise, but by the look of things, I didn't have much say in the matter. It was either die for sure up here, or maybe fine safety down there. Or die a stinky, honorless death. I was looking forward to one or the other, really.

A distant, mournful bellow of something large and hungry on the wind was enough to get us past our initial hesitation.

Being the trooper among us, Len went first; feeling around the edges with her foot rather than blasting the light down and giving away our position right off the bat, Len found her footing on the ladder leading down, took a breath, and quickly vanished into the abyss, light on her gun extinguishing as she journeyed down to the place none of us wanted to go. When she hit the bottom, I heard a click of her shoes and saw the light beam return, snapping around to face multiple directions as she searched for targets. Finding none, she waved...although we couldn't see it in the vast nothingness below. "C'mon," she whispered hoarsely, voice echoing despite her efforts to keep it quiet. "It's clear."

Dawn gulped, looking to our joined hands for support before looking to me, silently pleading me with her expression. I gave her an apologetic shrug and shook my head; I didn't want to go down there either, but we didn't have a choice. Sighing, Dawn's shoulders drooped a bit as she went over to the side of the manhole where Len had gone, searching briefly for the ladder before descending herself, holding onto my hand for as long as she could before she was down too low for me to hold on any longer. There was a second clack of feet hitting the cement below, and Len urged me downward.

I gulped, glancing around at the surrounding darkness nervously. There was no way I could stay up here...but did we really need to go down there, where it was darker, colder, tighter, and more grotesque than all the things I'd seen up here--_almost_--combined? Was that really necessary? Maybe it wasn't too late to try to talk them out of it-

A low bellow on the wind, this time much closer and higher in intensity, was enough to simultaneously bring my blood to freezing point and completely erase any doubt I had about heading down. I suppose I could have figured out what pokemon it was, but why the hell would I want to? It was big, it was loud, and it probably wasn't friendly; that was all I needed to know. Feeling for the ladder the girls had descended down, I found my footing, took one last breath of clean air, closed my eyes, and dropped down into the darkness below, using one hand to drag the cover back over the manhole, thus sealing the only way back.

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that I was never going to see the light of day again.

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**_AN_**

Hello~, all my shiz-tastic viewers out there~! May I just say that the amount of views I'm getting absolutely tickles me so? In a little over a week, I've received over 1000 views _from this story alone. _That's almost as much as two whole months from all my other stories combined! Not only that, but it's now officially my longest piece of work in progress to date! Not only am I proud of how it's coming along, I'm flattered that you guys think my story's good enough to read so much! So, I'm just going to take a moment to give you all a nice, healthy round of applause right here and now. Seriously, y'all, you peeps are awesome. *claps*

Anyhoozums! This is chapter 6(in case you couldn't tell). I know it's not one of the most action-packed chapters ever, but the psychological bit does add a nice flavor to the plotline, as well as a nice bonus to the desperate and horror-feel of the genre. I think so, anyway. It just seemed appropriate when I wrote it. ^^'

As usual, if you see anything that needs to be fixed--like if I rambled where I shouldn't have, got a feeling underemphasized or overemphasized, ect ect--be sure to let me know either via PM and/or a review, and I'll get that sparkling in no time. Once again, you guys are the shiz; keep up the...uh, shiziness! XD Toodles~!

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_Teaser/Spoiler!_

The next chapter will introduce one of two more characters that will be a part of the plot planned in the story thus far, as well as a kick-ass "boss" scene(it's planned to be, anyway; can't say how it'll turn out quite yet) that I'm looking forward to. I'm gonna need a little research and inspiration for the whole thing, though, so it may take a couple of days, even though I'm told the rate at which the chapters are coming out thus far is pretty fast. Most, if not all, of chapter 7 will be in the sewers, so bring a gas mask if you're queezy or don't like the smell of grimer shit. Cuz it's not gonna be pretty. -_-' Prepare yourselves for teh epicness!!

Don't forget to check out my profile; there's a poll that's gonna help decide the outcome of the boss battle. Lemme know what you think, ne?


	7. Shit Creek

_(Yes, I'm actually updating this AT LAST. I shit you not. Speaking of shit, on with the chapter~!)_

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_**Shit Creek**_

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_Len's POV_

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The second I set foot into that damn sewer, I instantly regretted it; I hadn't exactly thought it a romantic getaway location, but this was ridiculous. Everything everywhere was wet and dripping; with water or something else, I don't know, but it made walking a hazard. The concrete walkways on the side were almost as trashes as the waterway flowing down the middle, covered in blood and grime and trash and Arceus-knows-what, and on top of that they didn't stretch around the corner; the reached the end of the tunnel, stopped, and left it to the other ones to guide whoever was supposed to be down here along. It was going to be more trouble than it was worth trying to jump from path to path, and it would take longer, too; I suspected that it would just be better to walk in the canal, as much as I detested the idea. Not only was it nasty, considering what was in that water, but the idea of having a pokemon grab me by my feet and yank me under wasn't an appealing thought, either. That was the first problem.

The second problem - the one that really worried me-was the construction of the sewer itself. There were no lights-if there were any down here before, they sure as hell weren't working-which meant that, apart from two flashlights that didn't seem to count for _anything,_ we were completely blind. The reflection off the water made it difficult to distinguish shadows on the walls, which left us unable to see enemies unless they were directly in our line of vision, which would leave them directly on top of us. The sound of flowing water echoing off the walls made it hard to hear anything, plus the fact that the enemy could be anywhere around us at any given time-above, below, behind, to the side, right in front of us, beneath the water, around the corner...every last shadow was an ambush lying in wait. This whole place was a tactical nightmare.

Therefore, I wasn't very happy to be going forward. But what choice did we have?

Ash let out a disgusted noise as he touched down on the ground, Dawn instantly taking up position beside him. "Smells like a Muk and a Vileplume in heat!"

I had to agree with him on that one, but I shushed him regardless. "Keep your damn voice down," I hissed, even the slightest noises echoing eerily off the sewer walls. "Just shut up, put your gun where you mouth is, and stay behind me."

Ash narrowed his eyes but said nothing, keeping pace behind me as Dawn clung to his arm like a life line. To her, he probably was; I didn't have to point the light at her to know her eyes were as wide as salad bowls.

I kept to the left, hugging the wall with my guns outright, one serving as a navigation tool as it painted the darkness ahead of us. I wanted to stay on dry land as long as we could, but eventually the walkway ended, and we were left with the task of having to climb down into the water to continue down the tunnel that lead to the left, which had no walkway. _Damn it. I just got these shoes, too..._

I stepped down into the water, shivering at the lukewarm warmth that seeped into my socks. I didn't even want to _think _about what I was stepping into up to my ankles.

Ash now gave another disgusted noise, despite my order to stay quiet. "Dude, that's _nasty!_"

"Shut the fuck up!" I hissed sternly to him, pointing the light directly into his eyes. "Either get in here, or sit around and wait for something to come keep you company. Or go upstairs and find another Kecleon."

Ash winced, shielding his eyes with his hand, and sighed surrenderingly. There was no arguing with me, nor was there a choice. He moved forward, but Dawn tugged his arm. "Ash," she said quietly. "Your ankle..."

I blinked. I nearly forgot about the fact that he was hurt; you could barely tell, apart from the dried red and black medical tape wrapped around his ankle. The pain killers were working beautifully, but he still had that bite to worry about. That was a problem; if sewage water got into the wound, he'd have every disease and infection under the sun tearing through his veins. This wouldn't do. Had to find another way.

Ash waved it off, showing much less concern about it than me about it. Before I could stop him, he reached over the edge and slid into the water, splashing slightly, much to my disgust. He paused a moment, letting the water do its thing, before he shook his head. "It's fine."

Oh. Well, that was always a plus; at least the medical tape was holding firm. That took one more thing off our list of things of stuff to worry about. Assuming the tape held, he'd be fine. "Alright. Let's go." I turned and starting trudging through the muck, doing my very best to distance myself from the sickly fluid that flowed about my feet. This was just a whole new kind of nasty.

Ash started off after me, but Dawn stopped him again. "Wait," she said, then softly, more bashfully, "Um...c-can I ride on your back?"

Ash and I both faltered, stopping for him to consider. He paused, thinking briefly before shrugging and stepping up closer to her, back to her. "Sure. Just hang on tight, alright?"

Dawn nodded and muttered something confirmatory, kneeling down and climbing onto his shoulders, legs around his waist. She put her arms around his neck tightly, now visibly blushing as he got ahold of her legs to hold her steady a bit. "U-u-um...ready."

Though a bit annoyed that we had to wait, I couldn't help but smile at the sight of the two; they were pretty cute together. Briefly I thought about what a good couple they'd make if they weren't already in a relationship before snapping back around, bringing down the cold mask of officialness over my emotions. Things like that didn't matter: we had to keep moving. "Alright, follow me," I ordered, again starting off down the tunnel.

Ash and Dawn were both quiet as he carried her along behind me. I would occasionally glance back to check on them, hiding the grin I got when I saw her head nuzzled under his chin with the darkness all around us. There was business to be taken care of, sure, but they were pretty cute. It's good to have something to feel warm and have fuzzy feelings about in the times we found ourselves in. They weren't anywhere near as disciplined as me, so they needed extra support to get through this thing. It was a good thing they were so close, or we might have a problem on our hands. We couldn't afford any mental breakdowns at a time like this. I was amazed that we'd all kept it together this long, but I guessed it wasn't a good idea to question good fortune (yeah, some fortune), so I dismissed it to pay more attention to some of the more important things; such as where the hell we were going.

We sloshed our way down the tunnel a bit slowly, everyone eying every shadow that we came across, which were pretty much everywhere all around us. Have I ever mentioned how hard it is to see in a damp, smelly sewer with two flashlights in the middle of the night? Yeah, it's not easy; there were two slivers of existence in a realm of absolute darkness, complete oblivion marred only by smelly shit-filled water, cold stone walls, and Arceus-only-knows-what was ahead. Sound like fun? I hope not, because it wasn't. In fact, it was as creepy and disgusting as fuck. Some pieces of metal and pipe were edging around the tunnel now, a metal bracket creating a square opening for us to crawl through. I didn't know exactly what it was for, but wasn't particularly interested, moving ahead of Ash and Dawn to climb past it, light pointed through the opening-

A sharp hissing made me gasp and shrink back, guns pointed up at the source. Above my head, a pipe with the word "CAUTION" written across it in a yellow and black bracket had suddenly burst at one of the joints, a small stream of white steam hissing out of the crack. I waited a moment to assure that nothing else was going to happen, then swallowed the lump in my throat and continued, Dawn's light still probing said pipe warily from over Ash's shoulder. _Geez...damn place is making me jumpy. I gotta focus more. I can't be letting these little noises get to me._

Probing the entrance with my flashlight still, I stepped up over the bracket and passed to the other side, light painting the darkness that seemed to be seeping into the corners of my mind. _Would it kill them to install a fucking light system in this place? _The tunnel turned to the left, the water continuing to flow idly down the ever-so-slight incline like a small river...filled with shit, of course. I waded up as Ash stepped up over the bracket, splashing slightly as he stepped down with the combined weight of him and Dawn, who still clung to his back like a baby Mankey clinging to its mother. There was another "CAUTION" pipe overhead, but nothing happened when we passed beneath it, allowing us to focus on other things. Briefly I wondered what could be in a pipe in a place like this that would need something someone had to pay heed to warnings about before we came to a fork in the road. I wearily peeked around the corner, painting the light to the left, then quickly to the right to make sure I wouldn't get flanked. The left was a dead end, while the right continued to stretch on into seemingly oblivion.

The red emergency light illuminated the left corridor, dimly showing a body sprawled out across the canal, arms and legs bent at awkward angles. Waste water poured down from a large nozzle overhead, painting its overalls and tan work shirt a sickly brown and red. The head was what caught my eye and made me pause as Ash came up from behind me; there was a blue-green mass of what looked like a Medusa's Ekans-hair, no longer connected to the body's neck. That was weird; what the hell was with the person's hair? I pointed the flashlight at it as I muttered "What the," to myself, curiosity coming over me. I wearily approached, crouching down slightly as I turned my head, narrowing my eyes to make out the details. It just didn't seem to fit with the body at all. It was like it belonged to something else.

Turns out, it did; the severed head suddenly leaped up with a splash, shrieking a whiny scream that made me jump back in alarm as Ash and Dawn yelped in surprise. Before I could bring my guns back up, a blue-green tentacle slick with waste water lanced out of the darkness and snapped around my neck, pinching my windpipe shut. I gagged in surprise, hands reaching up to yank on the tentacle, which I couldn't get a good grip on, because of the slimy muck coating the already smooth, leathery exterior. My fingers wheedled between it and my neck as I tried to pull it off and breathe in the air that refused to come, but no matter how hard I yanked, the tentacle held firm, its origin hissing a scream from the dim red spotlight it stood in. I could see a pair of shriveled amber eyes glaring at me, punching through my head with its hate alone, glowing as if illuminated by their own light. I pulled and tried to get free, but the more I yanked, the more its appendage tightened on my neck. I could already feel my windpipe and spine squeezing together, threatening to break my neck and pinch my head off like I was made of silly putty...

I don't know what took those two so freaking long, but after the initial panic, a shotgun went off, causing the creature to shriek in pain, both echoing violently off the walls of the sewers like the screams of a banshee, hurting my ears. Another shotgun blasted through my conscience before the tentacle gripping me shot back as if struck, dangling at a grotesque angle as the entire other half of it held on only by a thread, flopping uselessly about as blood leaked out and dribbled into the sewage, tinting the water red.

Now free and gasping for breath, I stumbled back, firing one gun blindly as Dawn joined Ash and I in our attack, pumping round after round into the living ball of blue spaghetti. The screaming mass shuddered and staggered back, tripping over the headless body behind it before vanishing into the murky water, bobbing up a moment later, unmoving. Red stained the water as if flowed past.

Still gasping, I rubbed my neck where the Tangela had grabbed me, thinking how good it felt to have the repugnant fumes of the sewer flowing in and out of my chest. After a while, I considered screaming at the two to figure out what the hell had taken them so damn long, but decided against it as soon as I saw their wide, panicked eyes; they really didn't need someone going off on the right now. So, biting my tongue, I let in several more rounds of sour-smelling air before muttering "let's go," continuing on down the tunnel past them. Neither of them said anything, heads pressing together as they followed, Dawn pointing her flashlight past Ash's cheek. They both held their weapons a bit more closely, ready to shoot if anything so much as blinked in their line of fire. We needed to keep moving; no doubt all the noise had let whatever was here know that it had company.

I pointed my flashlight up at a work station of some kind built up at our left, suspended over the water a little bit. The emergency door clearly read "Locked" in big red luminescent letters, hence why I didn't climb up to investigate; the control panels built into either side of it looked pretty foreign to me. _They can afford all this high-tech door controls, but that can't light up their own sewers? Curious what logic inspired _that, _I wonder... _I nearly jumped out of my skin when something suddenly fell down from the open pipe overhead, splashing down in front of me and summoning a startled gasp from Dawn. Flashlights locked on where it had disappeared, ready to shoot whatever moved. Surprisingly, nothing came; I felt around with my foot, trying to find it, but whatever it had either vanished or sunk into the muck. Shrugging it off, I led us forward, stepping around the spot of interest just to be sure.

Up ahead was another work station up to our right, again with the word "Locked" reading above the doorway between two heavily damaged control panels that sparked quite frequently, showing that something really didn't appreciate getting locked out of wherever lay beyond. Can't say I appreciated it myself, but what were we going to do? Beat our heads against it? Further down was a short wall, the water flowing down through a little grating near the bottom, a hole formed to...I don't know, let people that got trapped down here crawl through? Briefly I hoped that there would be dry land on the other side, but we would have no such luck; the area was flooded, the atrium beyond filled with ankle-high waste water. A corridor stretched around it on either side, separated only by a thin metal grating with maintenance lights dimly illuminating the area, water dripping down from countless places overhead.

I climbed up through the opening to shine my light through, searching for contacts. Nothing either way, and it looked like the area behind the grating was clear too, although I knew better than to let my guard down; there were any number of places that pokemon could be lurking, at the very least was beneath our feet in the water. We had to move carefully; everything was a possible ambush lying in wait.

Ash poked his head through along with me, Dawn glancing around and, justly so, scowled. "Which way?" she asked.

Ash looked to me as well, his expression all but audibly declaring, "Well?"

Natural, I suppose; I'd proven to be the leader thus far, so of course they'd look to me for direction. Damned if it didn't make me feel like I was being put on the spot, though. "Well, uh..." I glanced either way, considering the possibilities for a moment. Our destination was on the other side of the chamber behind the grating, so I guess it didn't really matter which way we went, so long as we got to the other side in one piece. I motioned to the right, reaching my leg up to step up over the edge. "That way, since it's lighter. I want to see what's up ahead. Ash, gimme a boost."

Ash nodded in compliance, helping to lift me up over the edge. As I started lowering, though, he got this smart-ass look on his face just before he gave me a nudge forward; not particularly hard, but enough to move me a bit.

Having not been ready to step down quite yet, I abruptly had to bring my other foot down to catch myself, barely avoiding falling into the murky water. I stumbled forward a bit, using the grating to steady myself, then shot Ash a glare sharp enough to decapitate the bastard right then and there. The son of a bitch almost sent me swimming! _In a sewer! _"Asshole!" I spat, hands tightening on each of my guns.

Ash just snickered, flashing a goofy grin I wasn't sure I wanted to hug him or deck him for. "Love you too, Len."

I gave him a sour look, briefly taking note of Dawn's distasteful expression as he crawled through himself. I got even by kicking some water up onto his pants, smirking as I brushed past him, his annoyed remarks about how they were his "favorite pants!" making me smile wider. _Serves him right._

Up ahead I glanced around the corner, probing with the light on my gun. Nothing...in plain sight, anyway. The lack of pokemon was making me nervous; after all that racket with that game, I would have expected almost all of the things down here - it was obvious that they'd be down here; I wasn't foolish enough to think _all _the pokemon in Pewter City were on the surface - would have come running to score a kill. The "rush recklessly" strategy might have worked upstairs, but what about down here, where they didn't have the benefit of being in the swarm? Hopefully everything wouldn't be as ingenuitive as the Tangela, or we might have come down into a whole heap of trouble-

Speak of the devil, a smashing noise and a plume of dust erupting from one of the vents to my right ahead signaled that, indeed, we had just found trouble. A Raticate stuck its head out of the vent, its sunken, beady eyes rolling around in its head briefly before locking on me, where its already leering face contorted in rage and it screamed a hiss at me, massive teeth sticking out of its head discolored red from Arceus-only-knows how many kills. As if on cue, a pair of splashes of muck and water signaled where two pokemon had suddenly jumped up from their submerged hiding spots, hissing a challenge. Judging by the rounded shape from beneath the grime caking their bodies, I'd have to say Quagsire.

I swore and fired off a pair of rounds from each pistol, all four shots slamming into the Raticate and nearly completely removing its head, its matted furry body tumbling out of the vent and splashing into the water. The already ungainly Quagsire stumbled when the body collapsed in front of them and splattered them with red, both letting out moaning whines just before a flurry of bullets and a wave of buckshot peppered their bodies and colored them red with their _own _blood, adding their corpses to the mix; turns out, even a thick-skulled pokemon like a Quagsire can't take a bullet to the head.

No time to celebrate; I could hear bumping and rattling coming from inside the wall to our right, indicating that a few more pokemon had been waiting for us and were tearing through the vents to greet us. Rather than holding our ground and fighting in such a confined space, I ducked to the left to take up positions in the atrium where we could see them coming, glad Dawn had the intelligence to slip off Ash's back and slosh after us; no place for dead weight where agility might be needed. We twisted around and promptly waited for them to come to us.

Out of the vent in question came a duo of rather ravenous-looking Rattata, both of which were put down swiftly, one taking a slug to the head in mid-air and losing its cranium as a result, dead before it ever hit the water. A Machop dropped down from above within the vent, two Grimer emerging from the corridor we were heading down. I fired, striking one of the purple sludge mounds, causing a geyser of liquid as the force of the bullet exploded a considerable portion of the Grimer's body.

I focused on the Machop that had climbed out of the vent and started charging, barely having time to put it down before I snapped around to face the sound of a splash behind us. Pokemon were coming from the other side as well, another Tangela dropping from the pipework over our heads as another Raticate, a Magnemite, and a Grimer sprinted, floated, and oozed out from the corridor across from us. Seeing as it was the fastest, I stepped out behind of Ash and Dawn so they could watch my back and unloaded into the Raticate, the big brown rat stumbling back as bullets riddled its filthy, matted body. I did the same with the Tangela before I paused to pop the magazine out of the chamber of one of my pistols, moving to reload. Rather than go straight down and vanish into the murky water like a normal magazine would have, both cartridges eased to a stop in mid-air before rocketing over towards the Magnemite, both latching eagerly to its magnet arms like suckling kits would their mother as its massive central eye glared me down, cracks visible in its cornea from the sheer amount that it had shoved back into its body. It hovered forward eagerly as I finished reloading, pointed my guns at it-keeping a firm grip on both handles to keep the metal devices from yanking out of my hand-and fired into its "face." Its eye shattered like a busted headlight as a trio of bullets smashed through its metallic hide, giving a screeching metal-on-metal sound as its magnets and screws suddenly flew off its body, all three components ricocheting harshly off surrounding pipes and grating before splashing into the water below, vanishing into the muck.

The Grimer that had been slowly but steadily creeping forward gave a wailing noise at me, waving its arms threateningly, a split second before it exploded like a water balloon and simply ceased to exist.

Our backs secured, I turned around to check on Dawn and Ash's progress, eyes skimming over the bodies of the two Raticate, Nidorino, and Gastrodon bodies that had added up while I was looking away, a third Raticate flopping down as I watched. I had to say that, by this point, I was pretty impressed. They weren't trained soldiers, but they could really hold their own in a pinch.

One last Quagsire flopped into the water before the pokemon stopped coming, an eerie silence marred only by the persistent sound of dripping and running water. I snapped around to examine our backs, making sure nothing was sneaking up on us. When nothing came, I sighed, lowering my weapons, though making sure not to relax; we were still in hostile territory. No contacts didn't equal safety.

"Keep moving," I ordered tersely, moving up ahead to the path on the right-the one not clogged with bodies-and popped the magazines out of my pistols to reload before anyone had a chance to try to celebrate. We couldn't stop to let off some steam or cheer; the pokemon down here knew where we were, and we were anything but safe down here.

Dawn nodded as I sloshed up ahead, reaching over to put her hands on Ash's arm. Ash just smiled at her and put his hand over one of hers before starting after me, leading Dawn along.

Leading the way to the passage we worked so hard to get to, I shone my gun's light forward, feeling a slight smile tug at my lips when Ash murmured something assuring to Dawn to soothe her.

Who knew? Maybe something good was going to come out of this nightmare yet.

* * *

_Ash's POV_

* * *

The way ahead was just as dark as the rest of the sewer; too bad...I was really starting to enjoy that maintenance light shining the way for us. It was good to see what was coming at us before it was close enough to reach out and touch. Oh well...I guess we couldn't get spoiled on it.

Yeah, right. Spoiled.

We went around doing the same old thing for a while: Len leading the way up the night-black tunnel, one or two sewer pokemon occasionally making itself known before a volley of bullets blew them apart, waving us along further up the tunnel, which either seemed to continue on indefinitely or split and turned either left or right, one of which was usually a dead end. The lack of pokemon was equally unnerving as it was a relief; I was expecting tons more pokemon to be skulking around down here. The fact that they weren't either meant that we were right before when we said they weren't expecting us, or that they _were_ expecting us, and we were walking head-first into a trap. Either way, we didn't have any other choice but the keep going forward and pray we could kill whatever was ahead faster than they could kill us.

We rounded the umpteenth corridor to see a familiar scene: a long corridor with some work station up above the water to the right, a maintenance light painting the immediate area a glaring red-orange. Up on the platform, a Golduck's eyes glowed a burning blue as it pumped Psychic into the control panel, the device appearing to crumble and bend out of shape as if by magic, the internal electrical components sparking violently as they were crushed by an unseen hand like a tin can. Once it was satisfied the control panel had been taught a lesson, the pokemon's eyes returned to their normal sunken state as it turned, squawked in fury, and began unleashing a hellish barrage of Fury Swipes into the door, unaware that the only damage being inflicted was on itself as it's claws became bloodied and broken on the unbreakable metal surface. It was like it was too consumed in it's rage to notice it's reddening webbed hands were blistering with pain.

Unfortunately for it, that anger also went to absorb it's awareness of our presence, allowing Len to get up onto the platform, come up from behind it, and bury her combat knife into the back of it's neck. The Duck Pokemon froze in mid-swipe, burning eyes bulging open as it's muscles spontaneously solidified, completely paralyzed from the blade burrowed into it's spinal column, beak sluggishly twitching as it tried to let out a cry of pain. It began twitching uncontrollably as red flowed down it's back, and I thought it was going to break out into a full-fledged seizure before Len abruptly ripped her knife out to the side, severing it's spine and snapping it's brain stem in half while simultaneously slitting the back of it's windpipe. Blood sprayed out and stained the Jenny's blue uniform red as the pokemon twitched violently before slumping into the wall and sliding limply to the grating beneath it. It was dead before it even touched the ground.

Len calmly wiped her knife of the red that stained the glimmering steel on her uniform, returning it to it's holster before glancing at the ruined control panel, frowning in disapproval, now focusing on the door itself, trying to find an alternate way to open it. I stood by and watched the blood from the Golduck run down through the grating beneath it, watching the red fluid trickle down the support columns down into the murky water, where it tinted the water a brownish-red before flowing away out of sight, fusing with the unspeakable contents within...the red reminded me of the cheeks of a certain yellow companion of mine...not to mention the similar red I'd caused to pool out beneath his cold, unmoving form, sunken bloodshot eyes staring out blankly.

…_Pikachu..._

Intellectually, I knew I hadn't had a choice; now more than ever was I aware of the fact that every single pokemon in Kanto - if not the world - seemed to have gone mad, and that if we didn't defend ourselves, they wouldn't hesitate to kill us. However, a small part of me couldn't help but make me feel like I'd murdered my best friend out of cold blood, and that I ought to be put to justice for the crime I'd committed. _I'm so sorry, Pikachu...I didn't have a choice. I had to protect both Dawn and me...I'm sorry, buddy. I really am. Our friendship meant so much to me...would you understand? If you knew what was happening, would you understand why I did what I did? Would you have been able to forgive me? _

_I sure hope so...cuz I know I'll never forgive myself._

"Ash."

Dawn's voice snapped me from my daze, not having realized she had come up beside me. Quickly I wiped away the moisture that had been gathering by my eyes, trying to keep as steady a tone as possible when I replied, "What?"

Dawn didn't seem to notice my wavering front, focusing mainly on the Golduck body I'd been so fascinated with. She pointed at it, her expression one of curiosity and nervousness. "They're changing," she said. "Its eyes..."

I wasn't sure what she meant by "changing," about to remind her that _all _the pokemon we'd seen thus far had sunken eyes when I followed her gaze, stopping in mid-word. The Golduck's eyes, like the rest of the pokemon we'd seen, were burrowed deeply back into its head, enough so that I was wondering whether or not they were actually digging into the Duck Pokemon's brain. Unlike the others, however, I noted a distinct feature about them that seemed to set it apart from the others: rather than remaining their same general structure, albeit reddened and bloodshot like it had taken a pinch of salt to them, the Golduck's eyes were shriveled and crumpled-looking, burning an angry amber color that seemed to generate its own light, glowing like angry coals even after the pokemon had died. I could still feel the intensity of the kappa-like creature's hate through its lifeless gaze...the sight of its transformation made me shudder, a chill running up my spine. These weren't the eyes of a maddened pokemon that had once been sane; they were the eyes of a bloodthirsty, unnatural killing machine that knew only rage, hate, and killing. I couldn't see the "humanity" that I saw in all the eyes of the pokemon I'd seen; crazy or not, all pokemon had a little glimmer of familiarity in the back of them somewhere, reminding me that these weren't heartless monsters, but the very same pokemon that I had seen countless times before. The ones I'd spent my childhood growing up alongside. Now that I saw the shriveled, blazing eyes of the creature in front of me, however, I was having second thoughts. I wouldn't know this was a pokemon if I hadn't seen a Golduck before. Hell, I _still _wasn't sure about it. I'd never seen this sort of thing in anything before; not even the most evil humans and pokemon I'd ever seen were anything like this.

What was happening to these things? Were they slowly turning into the murderous demons that they were depicting themselves as? Were they undergoing a whole new kind of evolution process, this one completely dedicated the annihilation of the humans they'd lived beside and grown close with all this time?

Were the pokemon really turning into monsters?

Len let out an annoyed scoff, giving the illuminated "Locked" signal above the door a wry look. "All the exits are locked down," she said to no one in particular. "Must have triggered when the city went to hell. Looks like we've got to find another way to the surface again."

I pried my eyes away from the evil pits in the Golduck's head to look at Len, who seemed to note my unnerved state. The pokemon were becoming...I don't even know what was going on with those things. We were trapped down here in a sewer full of them, completely on our own, and I had no idea where the fuck we were. I'd lost my orientation with the Pokemon Center's position a while ago; at this point, just making it to the surface _at all _would be a good idea. I didn't want to stay here a moment longer than we absolutely had to.

Dawn seemed to think the very same thing, though she was a bit less contained about it than me. "I don't like it down here," she muttered, voice rising with panic just beneath the surface. "I-it's cold, and dark, and...smelly..." She gave a disgusted look down to the water flowing past her feet. "I wanna get out of here. We have to get out of here. We're gonna die down here. We have to leave...have to get out..!"

"Easy," I cooed, putting an arm around her shoulder in a comforting gesture, feeling my heart pang at how she was shivering. "Just stay calm for me. We'll get out of here, just you watch. Alright?"

Dawn's eyes drifted shut for the briefest of moments, leaning into my touch. My being there for her really seemed to put her at ease, though I could tell she was no less eager to get the hell out of this sewer. I didn't blame her, either. "A-alright..."

Len nodded approvingly at me, glancing down the way we were headed. She tilted her head for a moment, as if listening for something. "You hear that..?"

Dawn and I both paused, listening for whatever it was she heard. I couldn't hear much, bar my own breathing, the sound of the water flowing past us, and...splashing? Up ahead, ever so faintly...like water splashing onto water. "A waterfall?" I ventured, trying to place the familiarity of the noise.

Len nodded. "I think so, too. We must be getting close to the water treatment facility. We can get to the surface from there." She jumped down into the water, causing Dawn and I to back up to avoid the splash she made with disgusted looks. "This way." She waved us on with the same air of authority as a commanding officer, though I could tell she was faintly amused by our expressions. I scoffed, but other than that, we didn't say anything and followed in relative silence.

It sounded pretty distant, but the source of the noise up ahead was right around the corner. The river of sewage ended in a wall, which had a ladder on it that led to a platform wrapping around a large pool constantly being fed by a pipe spewing water down from the ceiling. It didn't smell much better, but it was up above the water. Len nodded, Dawn sighing in relief along with me; the opportunity to get out of this mucky water was a welcome one. Who in Arceus's name built the sewers like this? If they weren't already dead, I was going to put a bullet between their eyes.

Being the leader (though she'd never declared it), Len went ahead and holstered her pistols, stepping up to scale the barrier. I came up behind her, using the hand clenched around my shotgun to climb up, Dawn waiting at the bottom for us to go up, clutching her pistol to her chest while casting looks over her shoulder nervously. Len reached the top and stuck her head up over to look around, pausing a moment on the ladder as she did so. I was going to nudge her forward when she blurted out "Hey!" and scrambled up on top. I hurried after her and quickly found out why she made the exclamation: over around on the platform, a man was struggling with a pair of pokemon, a Machoke and a Gastrodon, who were both attacking him in a frenzied blood rage, appearing to have put some serious hurt on him already.

Len whipped a pistol out to fire when a stream of water slammed into her, shoving her backwards off the wall and back down into the water by Dawn. I took up her place, glancing over the edge to find the source of the Water Gun. Down in the pool, a brown-stained Seel glared up at me, bobbing slightly as it tried to keep afloat over the current formed by the water pounding down just a few meters behind it. I took aim at the pair of amber sparks in its head, fired, and got a satisfying feeling when the creature vanished before bobbing back up to the surface, leaking red from a dozen spots on its body.

At the sound of the gunshot, the Gastrodon and Machoke abruptly snapped around to face me, amber eyes blazing from deep within their heads. The Machoke's roared a challenge as the Gastrodon let out a moaning gurgle, slithering across the platform as the Machoke made a beeline for me, arms flailing as it threw itself forward with frenzied abandon.

I barely had time to bring my gun to bear before the Machoke was on top of me; the barrel of the shotgun was practically touching it when I pulled the trigger. The pokemon spurted blood out of its mouth in unison with the ensuring bang, took a drunken staggering step backwards, and flopped onto its back, splashing slightly in the puddle of blood and liquefied guts that had been spilled out of the foot-wide hole in its belly. I took aim at the Gastrodon only to take the better part of a Brine attack to the face, the salty water burning my eyes and knocking me back a few steps. I howled in pain, frantically wiping at my eyes in an effort to clear them, but to no avail.

Apparently the seal wasn't done, firing off a Water Pulse as well. The trio of watery rings slammed into me full-force and actually knocked me off my feet this time, shoving me backwards and knocking me onto my back, since I wasn't in the most orientated state. The salt in my eyes was washed away almost instantly, but now I had a new problem: I couldn't see. Actually, I _could _technically see, but I'm fairly certain the world wasn't comprised of spinning, blurry colors all around me, the noises echoing eerily off the inside of my head and effectively scrambling my brains something good. I lost track of which way was up and down, and I started feeling queasy, as well as being unable to function my limbs. It felt like my arms were where my legs should be. _Damn it...I'm Confused? No wonder pokemon end up hurting themselves in battle when they're like this..._

Eventually I managed to return to the real world, the colors and sloshing images eventually solidifying into the sights before me. I saw Dawn crouched down next to me, a concerned look on her face, while Len was busy pumping a few rounds into a rather displeased-looking Gastrodon, its slippery pink and brown hide stained red from the holes materializing all over it. "Are you okay?" Dawn asked, her voice sounding slightly slurred. I'm guessing that it wasn't _her _that was slurred, but _me._

I nodded, wearily accepting the hand she offered me to help me stand. I almost stumbled, but caught myself, regaining my balance. "A little dizzy, but...yeah."

Dawn nodded, a relieved look on her face, and I noted that she didn't let go of my hand afterward. She'd really started to become a little clingy as of late...not that it bothered me. She always took comfort in my being there, and we all needed to cope with things somehow, so I guess I shouldn't complain. My touch must have made her feel more secure.

After Len finished emptying her guns into the now quite dead Gastrodon, the shoved past the lifeless Sea Slug Pokemon and hurried over to the man that had been getting beaten on earlier, barely pausing to reload before she was down beside him. "Hey! Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me? Hey!"

Dawn and I hurried over as well, anxious to see his condition. It didn't look too good; there were countless scratches and abrasions all over him, as well as a generous coating of blood all over his skin and clothing...he looked terrible. It was a miracle this man was still alive...assuming he was, of course. I didn't see any chest movement to indicate life. He must have been, though, because he was slowly turning his head, amber eyes glaring at me-

Wait a minute...amber? Blazing, burning, shriveled and ground deep into his skull...his wounds were starting to ooze a pink substance I highly doubted was blood...

_Shit. _I jumped back and pushed Dawn away, raising up my shotgun to bear. "Len, get out of the way!"

Len snapped a look at me that all but demanded "What the fuck?" before she, too, noticed the pink sludge beginning to ooze out of the man's torso, as well as the eyes that burned with familiar hostility and animosity, suddenly realizing his silhouette was blurring as his details became less defined...

Len stood and reached for her pistols on her hip, but she wasn't fast enough. In the time it took Len's fingers to wrap around the gun's handle, the Ditto had liquefied, turned its usual pink, and thrown itself at her. She let out a muffled noise of surprise as the cotton candy-colored putty splashed over her face, forcing itself into her nose and mouth, intent on gagging her with it's own body. She clawed at it with her nails, the only remaining glove having been sucked off by it's vacuum-seal on her, ripping pink chunks of it's taffy-like flesh out of it's body.

Of course, Dawn and I were right along with her in an instant, sticking our hands into the gooey mass, trying to find something to use to pull it off with. I reached my hand beneath the creature between it and Len's neck, lifting to pry it off...only to have it morph and slap onto my arm, snaking up to my bicep towards my own head. Needless to say, I wasn't too pleased at the concept, hence why I slammed my arm against the wall and splattered it across the metal surface, giving me a moment to aim my gun at it. The Ditto quickly recovered, instinctively leaping off the wall to morph around the barrel of the weapon, stretching up to get to me again.

_Bad_ move. It must have realized it, hence it's high-pitched scream as it's body contorted in a last-ditch effort to Transform into something to save it's skin instant before I pulled the trigger.

The result was spectacular; the Ditto's body shuddered at the moment the trigger was pulled, it's body plugging the barrel and reducing the bang to a muffled _thump._There was a brief instant of stillness before the pokemon's body shuddered again, swelling up in the back where the barrel of the weapon, blowing up like a big pink balloon to an impossible size - almost as big as the man it had turned into previously - before, like a massive wad of pink bubblegum, the pokemon exploded, splattering thick pink sludge all across the wall, gumming up my clothes and forcing me to take a step back from the force of it, not to mention surprise. As awesome as that was, now I was covered in Ditto shit. _Wonderful._

Len spat a glob of pink onto the grating at her feet with a disgusted air, wiping her nose, eying the pink substance that oozed down the wall warily before determining the creature was dead. "Little fucker..."

I nodded in agreement, looking over to Dawn to assure she was safe, albeit pink-splattered. You know, as much as I hated to admit it, that was actually kind of clever - pretending to be human, staging an ambush for when we rushed up to see if it was alright. Messing with a dude with a gun bigger than it was wasn't particularly bright, but you had to give it an "A" for effort. It was a little discouraging in itself, though, not just that the pokemon were getting smarter. It seemed like, wherever we went, the only living humans that we encountered were us - Len, Dawn, and me. Same ol' same ol'. No survivors. All of Pewter was dead...and Arceus only knew how many other cities had befallen a similar fate. The poor people here didn't stand a chance.

No time to dwell on that; Len had already collected herself, and while she had a peculiar aroma from having been knocked into the sewage water a few minutes before, she kept her chin up and led the way guns-first, ready to blow a hole out of Hell to get us to safety. You couldn't help but admire a woman like that...if not be terrified at the same time. Either worked, but no matter how you sliced it, I was content with just following her along and keeping my mouth shut for once. There wasn't anything to say, and even _I _had better sense than to joke around; she hardly seemed to be in the mood. Plummeting into sewer water tended to do that to people, apparently.

Have I ever mentioned I was sick and damn tired of walking around in the sewers? No? Well, I'll tell you: I was sick and _fucking_ tired of walking around in the _fucking _sewers. Our luck at finding somewhere above the water didn't hold: the platform led to - surprise surprise - another locked door, which meant that we had to climb back down into the water _again _to continue on. Fan-freaking-tastic. I didn't protest, though, for fear of Len emptying a clip into my head, as I grudgingly came down into the ankle-deep gray water at the base of a ladder near the end of the walkway. The water pouring down into the massive pool seemed to be slightly cleaner than the rest of the crap, hence why it didn't smell quite as bad and why the texture at the bottom was much less unpleasant. It was still unpleasant; just not as much. Not that it could get any worse than wading through waste water. No wait, I take that back: could you imagine how fucked I would be if the bandages around my ankle from the Houndoom bite hadn't held up? Now _that _would be miserable. I'd probably end up dead from the infections I'd have picked up from it.

Lucky me; I got to avoid dying just so I could end up dying somewhere else later on. Yippee.

The following tunnel led us up past another locked workstation, where a Raticate leaped off the platform and was consequently put down via a flurry of gunshots. The noise attracted a small battalion of Wooper that skipped up to us from further up the tunnel, smiling that goofy grin of theirs despite the fact that their eyes were burning with malice that clearly showed they intended on tearing us apart. A few gunshots silenced the chorus of "Woopaaah, woopaaah," and was replaced by the sound of bodies splashing into the muck. I hated doing things like that...it felt so…_wrong_. It was like killing a pet, or a small child; is there anything worse than killing a creature that couldn't seem more innocent? Like an ever-chipper Wooper, or a peacefully sleeping Skitty? Or a Pikachu that you'd known all your life and couldn't be closer to-

I shook the thought from my head, forcing the image of a yellow body amongst a pool of red out of my mind. It would be back, of course - you could only shut something like that out for so long. Murdering my best friend was definitely starting to eat away at me, even though the efforts we were putting in to survive were keeping me a little distracted…I was going to have to come to terms with it eventually, I supposed, but I'd much rather have it be later rather than sooner. I just didn't want to have to deal with something like that. Not just that, but I had a Dawn to protect - she was all I had left. She was my best friend, and she needed me. I had to be there for her.

_Pikachu would want me to protect her. She was his friend, too…it's what he would have wanted._

I was so consumed in sobering thoughts that I barely even noticed that we'd come up to a ledge extending up and stretching on, the gray water sloshing past it. There wasn't any other way up, so we would have to climb through it…great. The one time I didn't have a pokemon that knew Waterfall or Surf…well, if I did, we'd have to kill it anyway, so it was probably best that I didn't have Squirtle or Totodile with me. The last thing I needed was another friend's blood on my hands.

As the one in charge and in the lead, Len had to make the decision first so we could follow suit, and frankly, she looked about as eager as we were. It was either this or turn back, so there wasn't a choice in the matter: we had to keep going. Therefore, we had to get through this thing…no matter how much we didn't want to.

We had to get out of here, and we had to survive. Because, if we didn't...who would?

* * *

_Len's POV_

_

* * *

_

Has anyone ever wondered about how very fun it is to go traversing around in a sewer network? No? Well, let me go ahead and tell you the joys of it: it was dirty, dark, wet, dirty, and _fucking disgusting. _It stank like shit, looked like shit, _felt _like shit...god, everything about that underwater waterway was just shit. A regular "shit creek" if I've ever seen one. Oh, and of course, our _luck _had to be reduced to shit, too: every other tunnel seemed to host more pokemon than the last, and we seemed to be spending just as much back-tracking and stumbling over bodies as we did going forward, eying the shadows - as if there was anything _else _in this place - as we subconsciously checked how much ammo we had left in our pockets. Ash commented that he was running out of shells; if I remembered correctly, combat shotguns could hold ten shells max, and he had about eight left, which would leave him to empty it one more time before he wound up on his last clip. I wasn't particularly inclined to part with any weapon of mine, but I had enough sense to tell him to sling his weapon and take one of my pistols; we needed to save the heavy stuff for the ones that we would need it for. The bruisers; stuff like another Rhy-evolution, or another form of large, armored pokemon capable of bringing the roof down on our heads.

Distantly I wondered about the Rhyperior we'd encountered earlier, briefly wondering if the debris that buried it was really enough to kill it. After the chilling possibility that it wasn't, I decided that it was best not to think about it; we were long-gone from that area anyway, and besides, worrying about what we did or didn't kill wouldn't help anything. Although it would certainly be a plus to have one more thing weighing on my mind off my conscience; I was going to have a hard enough time living with knowing I'd killed so many pokemon for any reason _at all._

Anyway, we didn't really have a lot of time to think, unless it was figuring out how to get the hell out of this fucking sewer. Yeah, I'll admit it - I had officially decided that it didn't even matter where we got out at, so long as we got out period. It felt like hours that we'd been down there, wandering around blindly in the darkness, and wouldn't you know it that we had lost our sense of direction along the way? Fighting off hordes of swampy sewage-pokemon tended to do that to you, it seems. Oh well...at least we were getting along well enough.

"You meat-headed moron!"

...or not.

Letting an exasperated, clearly irritated noise akin to a sigh pass through my lips, I shot the boy in question a sharp look, as if hoping I could draw blood from the very gesture. "What the hell do you mean we're _lost!"_

"I mean," Ash said in mock-patience, holding his arms out to indicate the dark, dank tunnels around us; Dawn fell back a step, shoulders coming up as she shied away from the obviously bursting tensions. "We're _lost. _I have no freaking idea where we are, no idea where we're going, everything that moves is trying to kill us, and- oh, did I mention we're being led around by a cop that couldn't navigate a city if we glued a map to the back of her hand?"

_"Don't _start with me, Ketchum!" I snapped, stabbing a finger in his direction as I marched forward, fully intent on jabbing him in the chest with it. Yes, I'll admit, all this squabbling was going to get us nowhere fast, but after going on in this sewer for what felt like hours, not to mention the fatigue of being awake and on the move for what felt like days, the frustration, the confusion, the fear...we really should have worked to keep a better hold on ourselves, but I couldn't help it. Every word that passed through the guy's mouth seemed to tilt the dial to my blood up a few degrees, and I couldn't take it anymore. "I'm posted in Viridian, dumbass, not Pewter! Besides, I _distinctly _remember someone telling me that they knew _exactly _where we were going, mister 'I-have-no-sense-of-direction!'"

"I never said that; I said that I _think _I knew where the Pokemon Center was - not 'follow me cuz I know exactly where I'm going,' or 'Hey, I've traveled tons of sewers in my days as a pokemon master,' I said that I _thought _I knew. Well, now I _think _I don't."

"And I _think _you're an _idiot!"_

"Hey, you're the one with the badge! Where'd you get that thing - the girl scouts? Clearly must not have earned your explorer's badge."

It took every ounce of willpower I had to direct my hand away from the pistol at my side and up towards my badge, yanking it off and jabbing it in the direction of his face. "I _earned _this, you jackass! I spent more blood, sweat, and tears on this piece of metal than you probably spent in your entire life! Unless we're talking about blood, with all the socks to the jaw you've probably taken for leading people off in the wrong direction!"

"Oh really?" Ash challenged, narrowing his glare at me. In the darkness, his eyes looked like pits of coal, not enough light present to illuminate the navy blue of his irises.

Undeterred, I marched right up to him, my chin nearly touching his as I glared right up into his face, and promptly returned his stare. I really ought have put a little more control over my actions, but so infuriated and genuinely pissed, I couldn't even care less that we were acting like kids. At this point, any blow would do - any: even a low one would do, so long as I could increase my chances of winning this little exchange. "Yeah, _trainer, _really! What's it like devoting all your time to hanging out with happy little pokemon, huh? Nothing like meandering about like the rules don't even matter, mingling around with the fucking _things _that _betrayed humanity, _you dumbass! You freaking fell in love with our _enemy!" _I attempted to give him a shove backwards, only managing to force him back a step. "It's idiots like you that made it so we didn't see this coming!"

Of course, I didn't really mean what I said, even though at the time I was sure that I had. It wasn't often that I got so pissed that I lost track of what I meant and what I didn't. If I had an ounce of awareness of what I was saying, it would have taken me all the effort it took me to keep glaring at Ash to keep me from slamming my hand against the wall. At the moment, however, all I could focus on was how..._frightening_ Ash suddenly looked. His eyes were hard to read exactly, because of the darkness, but I didn't have to see to know that his expression was positively murderous, teeth bearing in a scowl that, if I could see it, probably would have forced me a step back. His eyes...normally I would have found it intriguing, the way they seemed to be absorbing all of the light that went into them, but knowing how enraged he must have been, they seemed to be pits that extended straight down into oblivion. It was like staring into infinity...or maybe nothing at all. Maybe his eyes were portals to another dimension. Maybe it was the embodiment of evil in the eyes of a good boy at heart.

It doesn't really matter what it was...but the look in Ash's eyes scared the piss out of me. For a second, I thought for sure that he was going to hit me, or maybe just haul off and shoot me.

Fortunately, Dawn had apparently gathered the courage necessary to prevent that from happening, lightly placing a hand on his chest as she came to his side; it was hardly enough to hold him back, should he take a swing at me, but it seemed to have an effect of its own on him. "Ash," she said quietly - not in warning or begging, just a general statement like she was placing a name to him for the first time.

I didn't expect the gesture to work, but to my slight amazement, the intensity of Ash's glare decreased to a low simmer, shoulders slouching slightly as he relaxed. He stood there a moment, just looking at me, as if trying to gauge my real disposition. I kept the same cold expression on as before, but...I don't know. It just felt like, somehow, he was staring right through my defenses like they weren't even there.

After a little while, Ash decided he either did or didn't see what he wanted and turned away in a huff, muttering "Whatever" under his breath as he marched irritably away, going on ahead of us. You could all but hear the light screeching sound of steam venting out of his ears like a tea kettle.

Unsure whether to feel relieved, satisfied, or frightened, I went to move ahead myself, only to have Dawn stopped me with an equally light touch, though her expression was a slap in itself. "Just so you know," she hissed, eyes sparking like an open arc in a circuit, "when all of this started, Ash had to kill the best friend he'd ever had since he was ten. Think about that the next time you go pointing fingers about whose fault this is."

I opened my mouth to say something - _anything_ - in my defense, scarcely able to stutter "I-I..." before she too turned away, hurrying ahead to catch up to a still fuming Ash.

I stood there a while, staring after them, mouth hanging open in preparation for the words that weren't coming any time soon, suddenly aware of how very stupid I was feeling. That was totally unlike me. I mean, sure, tensions were high, but I was an effing _cop,_ for Mew's sake! Wasn't I the one that was supposed to keep a cool head when times were tough? Instead, here we were hitting a regular snag in our already makeshift and haphazard plan, and I was going off and making a complete ass of myself when I ought to be the one keeping my composure.

Finally noting how far I was from the group, I huffed a "Well, fuck," and moved to hurry up to the others; I felt like an ass, but I couldn't just let them walk off.

You know, the more we went up shit creek, the more I could attest to the notable lack of paddles. Hell, I don't even think we had a _boat._

_

* * *

_

Fortunately, we could only do so much wandering around blindly before Arceus finally had mercy on us and showed us the light...specifically from the ceiling, illuminating a big orange ladder.

"'Alehluya!" Ash proclaimed, sloshing forward just a little bit faster. "Go into zeh light, my children!"

"Knock it off," I snapped, yanking him back by the arm. "Honestly, Ketchum...you think the pokemon aren't up there somewhere? That's the surface, idiot. You know, where we went to escape? Besides, if they know we're down here, they probably have every manhole for miles baited. They could be right up there waiting for us."

To this, Ash just shrugged. "That's why we've got guns."

"Also why they'd be up there waiting for us!"

Glancing up at the enticing spot of light raining down like...well, light from the heavens, Dawn looked wearily over to us. "Um...can we just get the hell out of here, please? I don't like being a sewer Raticate."

Couldn't argue with that - getting out of here sounded like a very, very good idea. But that wasn't to say that we were going to be careless about it. "Stick behind me," I informed them, gripping the ladder in preparation to ascend. "Stay right here until I say so, and when you do, get up as fast as you can: the less time we spend between levels, the better." That would be a perfect time to pick one of us off: when we were going up to the surface again. Then they could just nab the last person up and make it that much more likely that they could make a quick getaway. Some of those Mankeys had Primape with them...kidnappings weren't entirely out of the question, at this point.

After reading them the Riot Act, neither of them protested, leaving me to begin my climb, though with one hand occupied by a gun. Damned if I was going up there without it.

There was no manhole covering the manhole, leaving the white light from the street lamp free to shine down on the gun that popped straight up out of the hole, immediately followed by my head, scanning all around. It was dark, leaving it difficult to see, and the street light was playing hell with my night-vision, but for the most part it seemed pretty secure. I hissed down that the coast was clear, then quickly put some solid ground beneath my feet with noted enthusiasm. Finally...hard, dry land. I was almost ready to bow down and kiss the pavement. Almost; I wasn't really interested in kissing dried blood, though, so I restrained myself.

Dawn and Ash came up quickly behind me, both making landfall with audible sighs of relief, although it was less than it could have been; it beat being in the sewers, but being back in the city streets posed its own problems. Thankfully, however, we didn't have to be there for long - what little luck we had obtained had added up, as the manhole we had come out of were located not even a full block down from the Pokemon Center...or at least, what was left of it. That blood and glass littering the street like a carpet didn't just materialize out of nothing.

"Guess you didn't get us totally lost after all," I mused to no one in particular, though the comment was directed mostly at Ash. I caught him rolling his eyes out of the corner of my own, at which I cracked a grin, though only for a moment - after that, walls of steel came slamming back down, and after checking that my pistol was primed and ready, my Arceus-knows-what-drenched shoes provided a crisp crackling noise from the glass that had made up the front windows to the structure we had emerged in front of. "Come on. Let's check into the hospital."

I guess our doctor's appointment came early. All any of us could hope was that one of the things assigned to us wasn't a toe tag and a special spot in the morgue saved for our corpses.

I could live with a speckled bill of health, so long as I had a bill of health _at all._

* * *

**_AN:_**

Helloooooooo~, loyal readers. Guess which story's back from hiatus~?

Hehe. Yeah, I know I promised a good boss battle way back when, but...well, I kinda got stuck. School started and my procrastination actually had an excuse to work with. God forbid laziness with justification, eh? xD

Well, I figured I ought to be able to put something into that empty spot everyone's been waiting for, so here it is. Thanks for your patience, guys, it's been one helluva summer, and the school year hasn't been much better so far. I think I'm going to be posting less and less as things go on, seeing as my free time's doing an equal downward spiral, but rest assured I will post updates _eventually. _You've done a good job with waiting so far, guys; I just hope you can excuse the wait. Life's a bitch. (so's your mother. OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH~ -shot-)

Not the best ending in the world, but I'll make up for it in the next scene, ironically named "Intensive Care." Lols, hospital pun. -shot-

Happy pokemon apocalypse, everyone~!


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